Mulayam Singh Yadav’s silence is a worry for his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam's son and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, completely taking over the reins of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mulayam's lack of comment on the future of Shivpal has been a cause of concern for the latter.
Recently, when Akhilesh organised celebrations for Mulayam's 79th birthday, the patriarch belied all speculation and turned up to bless his son. However, he remained quiet about Shivpal. This conveyed the message that Mulayam’s priority was now Akhilesh and not Shivpal.
Shivpal did not attend Mulayam’s birthday function nor did he make any statement on the issue, preferring to adopt silence as a strategy. But there is no denying the fact now there are limited options open to him. Either, Shivpal can acknowledge the suzerainty of his nephew or he can revolt and form a new party to challenge Akhilesh.
His future course of action could become clear in the coming few days. Since September 2016, when a family feud broke out between senior (Shivpal) and junior (Akhilesh), Shivpal always stood by Mulayam. Mulayam too defended him against all attacks of Akhilesh. Shivpal did not go on the offensive even when Akhilesh sacked him from his council of ministers and mostly avoided direct attacks on Akhilesh.
Shivpal had pinned all his hopes on Mulayam and at one point of time, he was on the brink of forming a separate party. But when Mulayam did not support him enthusiastically, he put off these plans.
By now, Shivpal has become completely isolated in the party. But there was a feeble ray of hope at the SP's national convention in Agra on October 5 2017, when it was speculated that Akhilesh would make overtures to restore Shivpal. The reason for this hope was that Mulayam had indicated that he would come out with some compromise formula between the warring uncle and nephew. But Mulayam did not turn up at the national convention, and with this, all hope for Shivpal died down. Following the national convention, Akhilesh's hold over the party became complete.
All these developments have put a big question mark on the political future of Shivpal Yadav.
Those close to him say that Shivpal will not give up easily. In the recent presidential elections, he openly voted for the BJP candidate Ram Nath Kovind. Of late, he has been in touch with many important BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh.
In the ongoing municipal polls, Shivpal has been actively involved in trying to ensure the victory of his loyalists and in the coming few days may come out with a big announcement.
