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Mainpuri bypoll: Akhilesh Yadav touches uncle Shivpal’s feet at rally in Saifai
Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav asserts there was never any strain in the relationship with Shivpal Yadav
In a show of bonhomie during the campaign for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday publicly touched the feet of his uncle Shivpal Yadav at a rally in Saifai and asserted that their relationship was never strained.
It was the first time in six years that Shivpal, who had earlier parted ways with the SP, openly campaigned in the family bastion Saifai for Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav, the SP candidate in Mainpuri. Saifai is in Shivpal’s Jaswant Nagar assembly constituency, which is part of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat.
Addressing the election rally. Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia chief Shivpal appealed for Dimple’s historic win. He also spoke about unity.
Akhilesh also said that the party would register a historic win from Mainpuri, a party stronghold.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who had won the seat in the 2019 general election.
“People say there is dooriyan (distance). Never there was any distance between chacha (uncle) and bhatija (nephew). Distance was there in politics but not between the uncle and the nephew. I am happy that today the distance in politics has also come to an end,” Akhilesh said.
The BJP, he said, was frightened and knew the people of Jaswant Nagar and Karhal that Akhilesh himself represents, were with the SP and the people in Mainpuri also had made up their mind to go with the Samajwadi Party.
“The bypolls are taking place at a time when netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) is not with us. All eyes in the country are on this election, the country will see the SP registering a historic win,” he said.
For his part, Shivpal said, “Whenever I went to any corner of Jaswant Nagar, people said only one thing — that if we unite, the BJP can be defeated. This is true that you have told us to unite, and we have become one.”
“And now it is your responsibility to ensure a victory by record margin,” he added.
He also said that ever since the BJP came to power in U.P, the problems of the people have only increased.
“The BJP government dishes out a lot of misinformation. We want to know that in the past 10 years, has it done any work for the people of UP?” he said.
“Poverty, unemployment and corruption have increased under BJP rule. If the public has to go to any office, they have to pay a bribe,” he alleged.
Shivpal also said he wanted to know what work the government had done for tubewells, power and roads in any of the four development blocks in Jaswant Nagar.
Shivpal had fallen out with Akhilesh before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. The two leaders had come together again for 2022 assembly elections, apparently at the instance of Mulayam Singh Yadav. But after the 2022 assembly elections, they parted ways again after the BJP made a comeback to power for second consecutive term.
The campaigning on Sunday saw Akhilesh, party general secretary and ideologue Prof Ram Gopal Yadav and Shivpal sharing the stage.
Akhilesh touched Shivpal’s feet after arriving on stage.
The election meeting that was held in SS Memorial Inter College also put to rest speculation about whether Shivpal would actively campaign for Dimple.
After Mulayam Singh Yadav’s demise, Akhilesh and Shivpal were seen together many a times but the latter was sending out mixed signals. However, a thaw was evident when last Wednesday (November 16) when Shivpal held a meeting with his supporters and told them to ensure Dimple’s victory as that would be the real tribute to Mulayam Singh.
The next day Akhilesh and Dimple drove to Shivpal’s residence in Saifai and spent 45 minutes with him. Akhilesh later had tweeted, “Along with the blessings of netaji and elders of the family, the people of Mainpuri are with us.” Shivpal tweeted with a picture, “We will irrigate the garden netaji created with our blood and sweat.”
UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary said, “This unity shows the impact of BJP. The SP is feeling the heat even in Mainpuri and that’s why the same ‘chachaji (uncle)’, who was ignored and humiliated earlier, has now been made a star campaigner. Why wasn’t he a star campaigner in earlier by-polls? This time however, with his wife as a contestant, the SP chief had to drive down to seek his ‘chachaji’s’ blessings.”
“We are all for united family but this perhaps won’t be enough for the SP to save Mainpuri from going the BJP’s way,” Chaudhary added.
