Shivpal Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh’s younger brother, has claimed that his party, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) will form the Uttar Pradesh government after the 2022 Assembly elections in the state, news agency ANI reported on Friday, 14 June.
“We have decided to contest the 2022 Assembly polls. Our party will form the government in Uttar Pradesh in 2022,” Yadav reportedly said at a press conference in Lucknow.
He further asserted that PSP’s election symbol will remain a key.
“Rumour is that there will be a merger but this (revelation) should put an end to all that,” he said, dismissing reports of his party's merger with the SP.
Akhilesh ‘Unwilling’ to Unite with Shivpal
On the other hand, Akhilesh is supposedly completely against his estranged uncle returning to the SP fold.
“With great effort, Akhilesh has managed to establish himself as the undisputed leader of his party and he naturally does not want his uncle to return and challenge his authority again,” a supporter of the SP chief told IANS on Friday, 14 June.
Their relationship has deteriorated so much that when recently, both the uncle and the nephew visited the ailing SP patriarch at his Lucknow residence, where CM Yogi Adityanath happened to be too, the two failed to exchange as much as a word.
Mulayam, who initiated an effort to patch things up between the two after the BSP called off its alliance with the SP, warned the family that its political survival would be at stake unless it unites.
Three members of the Yadav family – Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav – lost the Lok Sabha elections and the party's tally rests at five of its members in the Lok Sabha.
Akhilesh is facing pressure from his cadres. Having failed in the previous two Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019 as well as in the 2017 Assembly elections, his leadership is being questioned and unless he pulls his act together, the voices of dissent may get louder.
Despite Mulayam’s poor health, he is reportedly in touch with both Akhilesh and Shivpal and attempting to persuade the two to reconcile their differences for the greater interest of the family and the party.
(With inputs from ANI and IANS)
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