LUCKNOW: Amid speculation that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may anoint Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) chief Shivpal Yadav Deputy Speaker of the UP Assembly, his tweet mentioning a Chaupai (couplet) from the Ramcharitmanas created a buzz in political corridors on Monday.
Through his tweet, the PSPL chief described Lord Ram as the best teacher for family and nation building giving wind to speculation of him switching over to the BJP. As per PSPL sources, Yadav may visit Hanumangarhi and Ram Lalla in Ayodhya soon.
On the occasion of Chaitra Navratri, Shivpal Yadav tweeted: “Chaitra Navratri is a moment of faith as well as a moment to connect with the ideals of Lord Rama.” Earlier, Yadav followed PM Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Twitter, along with former deputy CM Dinesh Sharma.
A deputy speaker is usually elected from the opposition party and sits next to the leader of the Opposition in the assembly. If this happens, Yadav might sit next to his nephew and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Yadav contested the recent elections on the SP symbol from his traditional Jaswantnagar seat in Etawah district. Last week, Yadav met Yogi at the latter’s official residence in Lucknow for about 20 minutes. Sources close to Yadav said the PSPL chief may make a big announcement on snapping his ties with the SP soon.
As per political experts, if Shivpal switches over to the BJP or even if his party joins the NDA, the Samajwadi Party may receive a dent in its traditional Yadav vote bank as Shivpal is considered to have the strong backing of Yadavs for he has played an important role in laying the foundation of the Samajwadi Party along with big brother Mulayam Singh Yadav.
“Shivpal has given his blood and sweat to the SP and nurturing the party to this level. He has a strong following among the Yadav community and also some sympathy over the treatment he is being meted out by nephew and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav,” says Prof AK Mishra, a political scientist.
He can give a major dent to the SP in 2024, the way he had in the 2019 general elections when though his party could not perform well, it had eaten into the Yadav votebank leading to the defeat of SP candidates belonging to the Yadav clan in their stronghold. Akshay Yadav, son of Ram Gopal Yadav, was defeated in Firozabad and Dharmendra Yadav in Badaun, note political experts.
Some believe that even if Shivpal was not given the SP symbol to contest the recently-concluded Assembly elections from Jaswantnagar and had contested as an independent, he would have won the seat hands down because of his following. “The SP leadership should understand that they have not done any favour to Shivpal by fielding him on the SP symbol from Jaswantnagar. He was capable enough of winning the seat on his own,” says JP Shukla, a political commentator.
The rift in the SP first family is out in the open as Shivpal has been unhappy with Akhilesh and the alliance with the SP over being ignored and not invited to the SPLP meeting last month where Akhilesh was elected the SPLP leader. Shivpal has since been saying that he would speak about his future course of action at an opportune time.