Samajwadi Party on Monday named Shivpal Yadav, the once-estranged uncle of party president Akhilesh Yadav, as one of the star campaigners for the ongoing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Shivpal’s name, which was not in the original list of the star campaigners, has now been included in the fresh list.
The five-year-long estrangement of Shivpal and Akhilesh ended ahead of the 2022 UP assembly polls with the SP taking Shivpal’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) on board in the SP alliance with smaller parties.
The making of Shivpal as star campaigner is being interpreted as further improving of ties between Akhilesh and Shivpal.
There has been a visible camaraderie between the uncle and nephew in the last few weeks.
Shivpal also campaigned vigorously for Akhilesh while the SP chief contested his his first assembly polls. Voting for both the constituencies, which Shivpal and Akhilesh contested, was over on Sunday. Shivpal contested Jaswantnagar and Akhilesh Karhal.
After the reunion and alliance announcement of SP and PSP-L, the Samajwadi Party first announced Shivpal’s candidature on the Jaswantnagar seat as an SP candidate and not PSP-L candidate. Then Shivpal held several public meetings in Karhal for Akhilesh along with his own campaign in Jaswantnagar. On the last day of campaigning for the third phase elections, Akhilesh ran his Vijay Rath Yatra through Etawah taking along Shivpal and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on the rath and campaigned for all Etawah candidates, including Shivpal.
However, the most emphatic sign of improvement of political relations between Shivpal and the SP political clan was seen at polling booth number 239 in Saifai when all the close Yadav family members came out to vote for Shivpal (Saifai falls in Jawantnagar constituency). At the booth, the SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav and Shivpal were seen together with Ramgopal keeping his hands on the younger cousin Shivpal’s shoulders.
{{/usCountry}}However, the most emphatic sign of improvement of political relations between Shivpal and the SP political clan was seen at polling booth number 239 in Saifai when all the close Yadav family members came out to vote for Shivpal (Saifai falls in Jawantnagar constituency). At the booth, the SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav and Shivpal were seen together with Ramgopal keeping his hands on the younger cousin Shivpal’s shoulders.
{{/usCountry}}In the new list of SP star campaigners, Shivpal figures along with Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dimple Yadav and others.
Other prominent star campaigners include Ram Gopal Yadav, Kiranmoy Nanda and Swami Prasad Maurya, the former union minister who had left the BJP weeks ahead of the polls (these names were in the first list also).
The SP and PSP-L have expressed confidence of forming the next government in the state.
Now, four more phases of the UP assembly polls remain. The last phase of voting will take place on March 7 and counting of the votes will be done on March 10.