Samajwadi Party (SP) national general secretary Shivpal Yadav on Sunday vowed to undo his ‘act’ of having been instrumental in the defeat of the then sitting MP Akshaya Yadav on the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 parliamentary election.
The assertion by Shivpal Yadav came even as the SP informally declared Akshaya its candidate for the same seat for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls during the party’s ‘Lok Jagaran Abhiyaan’ in Firozabad on Sunday.
Akshaya had finished second behind the BJP’s Chandra Sen Jadon in Firozabad in 2019 . Shivpal, who headed the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia then, upset Akshaya’s applecart by splitting votes despite being in third place. Shivpal by his own admission, and also the SP’s, was the sole reason for Akshaya’s defeat.
The BJP candidate Chandrasen Jadon bagged 4,95,819 votes and Akshaya 4,67,038. Akshaya lost by a margin of a mere 28,781 votes. Shivpal had garnered 91,869.
Akshaya Yadav will be the SP candidate for Firozabad seat for the third time in a row. He won the seat in 2014.
On Sunday, with Akshaya Yadav standing by his side in Firozabad, Shivpal Yadav attacked the BJP government and praised Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav governments.
{{/usCountry}}On Sunday, with Akshaya Yadav standing by his side in Firozabad, Shivpal Yadav attacked the BJP government and praised Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav governments.
{{/usCountry}}“If we are united, then we will show the BJP the door in the 2024 LS polls,” he said.
Shortly after, Shivpal said in a post on the microblogging site X “This time, this Chacha will cause the victory of Akshaya in Firozabad Lok Sabha polls.”
Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav, SP chief national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ramgopal Yadav (the father of Akshaya Yadav), SP national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya, and Shivpal Yadav addressed the party’s cadre training camp in Firozabad, the fifth one in the ongoing series of party’s training camps for the 2024 polls.
Shivpal Yadav was kept away from the SP from the 2017 to 2022 UP assembly polls. In 2022, Akhilesh took Shivpal’s PSP-L onboard as an ally and gave it only one seat Jaswant Nagar which Shivpal won. Then in December 2022, Shivpal merged the PSP-L with the SP.
The then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle and then PWD minister Shivpal Yadav had a bitter political feud over the control of the Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2017 U.P. assembly polls. Akhilesh won the feud and became the national president of the SP while Shivpal was ousted. Subsequently, Shivpal formed PSP-L. His party contested several seats in the state against the SP. Shivpal himself contested the Firozabad seat against the sitting MP Akshaya Yadav.