KANPUR For the last six years, Shivpal Yadav was the knight on the chess board, walking two steps towards the BJP and one step towards his nephew and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.
But on Thursday, the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohiya (PSPL) founder put all speculations to rest and announced the merger of his party into the Samajwadi Party (SP), at SS Memorial Inter College in Saifai, the ancestral village of Yadavs.
The merger came amid Dimple Yadav’s emphatic victory in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat by over 2.8 lakh votes.
“We have merged the PSP-L with the SP. I was waiting for the right time. We will unitedly contest all the elections. Be it civic bodies’ polls or the Lok Sabha election, there will be an SP flag on the car,” Shivpal said in Saifai where Akhilesh called on him and touched his feet amid workers celebrating the victory.
Following the announcement about the merger, the PSPL’s flag was also brought down from the party office. “This is a new change of Samajwad (socialism). There were misunderstandings between the two leaders, which have now been cleared. And from now on, it will be a fight between BJP and SP,” PSPL’s chief spokesman Deepak Mishra told a news agency.
After falling out with his nephew Akhilesh Yadav ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, Shivpal has joined hands with Akhilesh for the second time. He had allied with the SP for the 2022 Assembly elections, and took out ‘Janrath Yatra’ to mobilise voters. But the alliance ended with the elections.
{{/usCountry}}After falling out with his nephew Akhilesh Yadav ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, Shivpal has joined hands with Akhilesh for the second time. He had allied with the SP for the 2022 Assembly elections, and took out ‘Janrath Yatra’ to mobilise voters. But the alliance ended with the elections.
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