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Shivpal says not invited to SP’s legislative meet
The principal opposition party in the state, however, clarified that the meeting was only for SP legislators and not those from its allies, including those who won the recent elections on SP ticket.
Senior leader Shivpal Singh Yadav is reportedly miffed with the Samajwadi Party (SP) for not having been invited by his nephew Akhilesh Yadav for a meeting of the legislature party on Saturday, adding to the speculations of continued strains in the party’s first family.
The principal opposition party in the state, however, clarified that the meeting was only for SP legislators and not those from its allies, including those who won the recent elections on SP ticket.
Shivpal, who is the president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL), won the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly election from Jaswant Nagar seat on a SP ticket.
“I was not invited to the party meeting. I waited for two days and cancelled all my programmes for this meeting but I wasn’t invited. I am an MLA from Samajwadi Party but still not invited,” Shivpal told news agency ANI.
Shivpal, the younger brother of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, had severed ties with the SP in 2017 and floated his own party, PSPL. After remaining at loggerheads since 2017, Akhilesh and Shivpal had decided to mend fences just before the recently concluded assembly elections.
Akhilesh was unanimously elected the SP legislature party leader on Saturday.
At the Saturday meeting, only Samajwadi Party legislators were invited and none of the MLAs from alliance partners, or those who are from allied parties but contested on SP ticket, were invited, said Naresh Uttam Patel, party’s Uttar Pradesh president.
“Akhilesh Yadav has invited leaders, national presidents and MLAs of our ally parties on March 28. They will come that day,” Patel said.
