Shivpal Yadav launches party, says tried to hold SP together

Shivpal Singh Yadav launched the SSM on August 29 after falling out with nephew and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

Updated on: Oct 23, 2018, 23:31:35 IST

Hindustan Times, Lucknow | By Pankaj Jaiswal

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Lucknow Rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav declared on Tuesday that the name of his new political party is “Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia)”, setting the stage for a fresh stand-off with his nephew and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Samajwadi Secular Morcha founder Shivpal Singh Yadav at a Shri Krishna Vahini event, in Lucknow on September 11. (AP Photo)

Yadav, the younger brother of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and a former heavyweight Uttar Pradesh minister, made the announcement at a membership drive for his Samajwadi Secular Morcha, which he had formed on August 29.

He has already announced the intention of contesting all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 polls. He said on Tuesday that his party had been registered with the Election Commission. The SSM and the new party will co-exist, and the morcha will try and bring more like-minded parties under the same umbrella, sources said.

Yadav said he tried his best to hold the SP together but that he decided to chart his own course after being pushed into a corner.

“As a minister in SP government, I must say I did a credible job and worked hard to consolidate the party, but ultimately the sycophants prevailed. I was insulted in the party, Netaji’s (Mulayam Singh Yadav) honour too was compromised. I waited for very long but ultimately decided to take this step.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pankaj Jaiswal
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.Read More