LUCKNOW: After Secular Morcha, Shivpal's new party --(PSP-Lohia) - gets registered at ECI Namita BajpaiLucknow: The rebel Samajwadi Party leader Jswantnagar MLA Shivpal Yadav on Tuesday announced that his new political party -- Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) (PSP-Lohia) - was registered with the Election Commission of India.
The move has come couple of months after he launched his Samajwadi Secular Morcha giving an ample hint of widening wedge in the Yadav clan after his fierce and prolonged battle of nerves with nephew Akhilesh. "Our new party has been registered. Its name is Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia)," Yadav said at a mega event in Lucknow during a membership drive for his morcha on Tuesday.
Shivpal, who had already sounded a bugle against his parent party by announcing to contest all 80 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls barring one seat from where Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest, has won support from all those forces within SP who were sulking against SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Shivpal Yadav, however, is still a SP legislator from Jaswant Nagar in Etawah district.
Shivpal's close aide and former minister Sharda Pratap Shukla said the new party would soon become a big force to reckon with in the state.The Samajwadi Secular Morcha had taken shape when Shivpal complained that he was feeling suffocated and neglected in the SP, which was founded by his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav, after his nephew took charge.
Claiming that he was pushed out of the parent party, Shivpal Yadav at Tuesday's event said he always stood for "unity" in the party but neither he nor Mulayam Singh Yadav got the due respect under Akhilesh Yadav. Asking his party men to have free thoughts and the promising them the freedom to express their thoughts, Shivpal cautioned them against following a culture laced with sycophancy as was the case with Samajwadi Party. "You will be free to point out if there is something wrong going on. I will allow this freedom in my party," he said.
Claiming extensive support for his political front and taking on BJP-led Central and state government, Shivpal called both the government anti-people. "Due to their wrong policies and decisions people are upset with them. Demonetisation and GST (Goods and Services Tax) have broken the backbone of traders and the economy," he asserted in a bid to do away with the allegation of playing at the hands of BJP leadership.
Recently, Mulayam Singh Yadav's younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav had shared the stage with Shivpal Yadav, expressing her support to him and her eagerness to join him. Mulayam Singh Yadav too has been on the same stage with Shivpal Yadav after the new morcha was formed. But the SP patriarch has cast a spell of ambiguity by being both with the son and the brother at different occasions.