LUCKNOW: As the 2019 Lok Sabha poll battle is inching closer, fissures in the ‘first family’ of Samajwadi Party are reappearing to trouble the organisation. The rumblings in the family are trickling out with the flip-flop of senior leader Shivpal Yadav, who has been estranged with nephew and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Running out of options and turning redundant in SP, Shivpal has once again given indications of floating his own outfit before general elections.
“He is apprehensive about restoration of his pride and stature in the party, with Akhilesh at the helm,” said a source close to Shivpal. With elder brother and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav — under whose wings Shivpal nurtured his political dreams — having reconciled to Akhilesh’s ways of running the organisation, his doubts are gaining ground.
According to the sources, Shivpal, worried not only about his future but also his son Aditya’s, had been sending feelers to Akhilesh for reconciliation but they were not reciprocated. “Shivpalji tried hard to mend ties with party chief, but now he is trying to come to terms with the fact that it’s too late and he doesn’t fit in the present scheme of things in the party,” said a close aide of the SP leader. “In all probability, Shivpalji will launch his own outfit before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” he added.
After the Rajya Sabha polls in the state in March, when Shivpal was seen standing firm with the party, speculations were rife that he might be sent to Delhi. But nothing concrete took shape. He recently conceded that he was not on talking terms with Akhilesh. He said he had attended the birthday celebrations of SP general secretary and cousin Ram Gopal Yadav in June on Mulayam’s insistence. “But it paid no dividends and the ties remained as tense as ever with Akhilesh and Ram Gopal despite his ‘we stand united as a family’ posturing in Etawah during the event,” said a senior SP leader close to the Yadav family.
Waiting in the wings for almost a year now, Shivpal undertook a number of visits to Delhi in the past few months to consult political experts while exploring the option of floating his own front, said the sources. Not just Shivpal, but several other senior leaders are grappling to find a foot in the new set-up in the party under Akhilesh. “The new leadership has its own ways of running the show. It wants the veterans to sit at home. As a result, many are looking out for other options,” said political observer Ashutosh Mishra.
Leaders like Bhagwati Singh, Narad Rai, Mohammad Azam Khan, Mohammad Shahid and Deepak Mishra, who were the part core team during Mulayam’s time, are feeling left out now, said a Samajwadi leader. “All such people are in touch with Shivpal,” said a source close to one of those leaders. However, the Shivpal camp is weighing options and the choices are varying between floating a secular front and reviving an old party like Charan Singh’s Lok Dal.
The family dispute
In September 2016, then SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav replaced son Akhilesh with Shivpal as the party’s state chief. The family feud culminated in a coup of sorts by Akhilesh, who not only removed Mulayam from the party chief’s post and got himself appointed in his place but also stripped Shivpal of party post and cabinet berth at a hurriedly called national executive on January 1, 2017. According to party sources, immediately after the 2017 Assembly polls, when SP suffered a crushing defeat, Shivpal was all set to branch out and float his own outfit, but Mulayam had intervened and stopped him. But now, even he appears to have accepted the fact that Akhilesh-Shivpal ties are beyond rapprochement.