Senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday threatened to form a new “secular front” if his nephew and party president Akhilesh Yadav does not hand over the reins of the SP to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
"Akhilesh had promised to hand over the party to 'netaji' (Mulayam). He should now do so and we all will strengthen the SP. I had also given him three months' time. Otherwise, I will constitute a new secular front," Shivpal told reporters here.
Shivpal had recently said he would soon launch a campaign to unite "samajwadis" (socialists) to bring them on a single platform.
The Samajwadi Party had witnessed a bitter feud between uncle Shivpal and the then Chief Minister Akhilesh in the run up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
Just before the elections, Akhilesh had snatched the party’s reins of the party from father Mulayam in a fight that even reached the doors of the Election Commission.
After filing his nomination for the state polls in January, Shivpal had said he would form a new party after the election results are declared.
The Samajwadi party contested the polls under Akhilesh's leadership but suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP.
The SP got only 47 seats in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, its lowest tally since the party’s inception in 1992. The Congress and the SP fought on a pre-poll alliance.
After the loss, Shivpal asked him to step down as the national president of the Samajwadi Party and embrace Mulayam Singh as the party chief.
