After months of wrangling for power in the first family of Uttar Pradesh’s former ruling party, the Samajwadi Party (SP) today faced the inevitable. Shivpal Yadav today announced the launch of a new political outfit called Samajwadi Secular Morcha, which will be headed by his elder brother and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Shivpal said he was launching the party “to restore Mulayam Singh Yadav his lost honour”. The Yadav family had seen high drama in the run up to the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh that saw the then ruling party suffer a crushing defeat, marking its worst ever performance since inception 25 years ago.
“Neta ji ko unka sammaan vapas dilane, aur Samajawadion ko ek saath laane ke liye is morche ka jald hi ailaan hoga ("To return the respect due to Netaji, and to bring the real samajwadis together, we will soon announce this front."),” Shivpal told ANI.
Mulayam Singh, 77, was divested of his position as chief of the Samajwadi Party by his son and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav just before assembly elections in the state earlier this year.
After a long family feud, Akhilesh took over as party chief, promising to return the position to his father after the Assembly elections. He then went on to join hands with Rahul Gandhi and a merger with the Congress, but suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of BJP.
Earlier this week, Shivpal Yadav had warned Akhilesh Yadav that he would form a new party if he did not hand over the reins of the Samajwadi Party to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mulayam Singh, who had founded the SP in 1992, stayed away from the election, only campaigning for Shivpal Yadav and his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav.
