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Shivpal backs Murmu, criticises Akhilesh for ‘political immaturity’
Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav had a bitter fall out over control of the SP before the 2017 assembly elections.
Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) president Shivpal Yadav on Saturday said he will vote for Droupadi Murmu, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, in the upcoming presidential poll, and blamed his nephew and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s “political immaturity” for allies leaving him.
The 67-year-old leader recalled that he had earlier said he would vote for the candidate who seeks his support in the July 18 presidential poll.
“Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath has sought my vote and I have decided that I will vote for Murmu,” Shivpal Yadav told reporters on Saturday. “I had already said the person who will seek my vote will get it. (President) Ram Nath Kovind had twice sought my vote (during the previous presidential poll) and I had supported him.”
The remarks came a day after Shivpal Yadav, who is a Samajwadi Party legislator, along with SP ally Om Prakash Rajbhar of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, attended a dinner hosted by Adityanath in honour of Murmu. The move further indicated cracks in the opposition alliance led by Akhilesh Yadav, who has already declared his support for Yashwant Sinha, the united Opposition nominee, in the presidential election.
Shivpal Yadav also took a dig at his nephew, blaming him for the weakening of the SP.
“It seems that because of political immaturity, the party is getting weaker. A lot of people are leaving,” he said. “If our suggestions had been heeded, the Samajwadi Party would have been in a better situation.”
Since 2022 assembly elections, Mahan Dal and Janwadi Party (Socialist) have snapped ties with the SP.
The two leaders had a bitter fall out over control of the SP before the 2017 assembly elections. But the two leaders reunited ahead of the assembly elections earlier this year in which Shivpal Yadav won from his traditional Jaswant Nagar seat in Etawah on an SP ticket.
However, weeks after the assembly election results, which saw Akhilesh Yadav-led party facing yet another defeat in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), they once again seemed to be at loggerheads. Shivpal alleged Yadav has alleged that he was not invited to a key party meeting soon after the election results were announced on March 10.
Meanwhile, there has been buzz about Shivpal Yadav’s growing proximity with Adityanath. In May, the UP CM lauded Shivpal in the state assembly and said: “Whenever there was a discussion about Samajwad (socialism), it was about Dr Ram Manohar Lohia or Jayprakash Narayan. But when I see writings on Dr Lohia, now I see Shivpal Yadav…”
“Samajwadi Party is strong, the party did well in the 2022 polls. Shivpal ji had been trying to become part of the SP, which he is not. He has his own party. He contested polls and won it on SP ticket. He should rather look at his own party and where has it reached it in all these years. So far as his supporting NDA presidential candidate is concerned, then that’s nothing new. He had voted for NDA presidential candidate last time also”, said a senior leader of the SP, who did not wish to be named.
