The younger brother of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav, who has developed a bitter political animosity with his nephew and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, has announced on Friday a new political outfit. With this, the SP has split formally.
According to him, Mulayam will be the head of this new front which would be named Samajwadi Secular Morcha (secular front of the SP). Shivpal said decision about the details of this front would be taken in coming few days. Shivpal, who met Mulayam before announcing the formation of the party, claimed that he formed the secular front for ensuring social justice. He further said he is floating the front to ‘restore the lost glory of Netaji (Mulayam)'.
With the formation of this new outfit, the Yadav family is divided between the two camps—Mulayam, his younger son Prateek Yadav and younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav supporting Shivpal while Ramgopal backing Akhilesh.
It may be recalled that there was a bitter feud in SP between Shivpal and Akhilesh even before the assembly polls in UP were announced. The major bone of contention between them were control of the party and government. While Mulayam and a few old guards of the party sided with Shivpal, the former chief minister was backed by Mulayam’s cousin Ramgopal Yadav and younger leaders in the party.
At party meetings, both Shivpal and Akhilesh used to express their dislike for each other. While the former CM accused Shivpal and Amar Singh of “sabotaging party’s poll prospects,” Shivpal used to accuse Akhilesh of lying. Despite the many meetings convened to resolve the crisis at the insistence of Mulayam, the war in the party continued.
Just before polls, Uttar Pradesh had witnessed high voltage political drama which ended in the expulsion of Akhilesh and Ramgopal from the party and Shivpal becoming its state head. In retaliation, Akhilesh removed Shivpal from the cabinet.
Later, the warring factions went to the Election Commission of India to stake their claim for the party symbol. The political crisis culminated in Akhilesh becoming the head of the party in place of his father. A bitter Mulayam shied away from campaigning for the party in polls and SP fared poorly despite joining hands with the Congress.
There were allegations that Shivpal had covertly supported the BJP contestants during elections.
Although Shivpal had asked Akhilesh to step down from the post of party's national president, the latter refused to do so.
In the past few months, Shivpal, on many occasions, spoke about forming a new front. He had also held the former CM responsible for the party's rout in the assembly polls. Shivpal had also given Akhilesh three months to step down from the post. “I had given him (Akhilesh) three months time, if he does not yield, I will form a new outfit,” he had said.
