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Will ally with uncle Shivpal’s party, give him full respect: Akhilesh
It has been the endeavour of the Samajwadi Party to stitch an alliance with smaller parties. Naturally, we are going to forge an alliance with the party of uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav as well, says SP chief
LUCKNOW Ahead of the 2022 UP Assembly polls, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday expressed his intent to forge an alliance with his politically estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L). Shivpal was trying for an alliance with the SP since before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but Akhilesh had been non-committal.
“It has been the endeavour of the Samajwadi Party to stitch an alliance with smaller parties. Naturally, we are going to forge an alliance with the party of uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav as well. The SP will give him full respect,” said Akhilesh in Saifai. He is on a visit to his ancestral village for the family’s usual get-together on Diwali.
“Many small parties have joined hands with us. Recently, Om Prakash Rajbhar (president of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party) held a historic programme in Mau and has allied with the SP,” he added.
When asked about any merger of the PSP-L into the SP, Akhilesh said: “Alliance, not merger.”
Reacting to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s statement on Monday that he should apologise for comparing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Akhilesh said: “The BJP engages in the politics of hatred. It is always on the lookout for such chances. They do not talk about unemployment and development.”
At an event in Hardoi on Sunday, Akhilesh Yadav took the name of the Father of the Nation Mahatama Gandhi, the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel and the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the same breath for working for India’s freedom. Since then, the BJP had been attacking Akhilesh over the comment.
On chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s proposed visit to Etawah on November 6, he said: “Maybe he (Yogi Adityanath) is visiting Etawah to inaugurate some of the works that our government had done. He does not have any work of his to showcase. When he comes here, ask him what significant work he did.”
Shivpal and Akhilesh Yadav had fallen out in August 2016, triggering a long drawn Yadav family feud for the control of the Samajwadi Party. Eventually, Akhilesh became the national president of SP in January 2017 and Shivpal eventually floated the PSP-L before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He contested against SP’s official candidate and the then sitting MP Akshay Yadav from Firozabad. However, both lost as the BJP wrested the seat from the SP. Since the formation of PSP-L, Shivpal had openly talked about his intention to ally with the SP.
Deepak Mishra, a PSP-L leader, said: “We had been saying that like-minded socialists should come together. Whenever socialists have come together, they won elections.”
