Lucknow: Shivpal Yadav, Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother, is keeping the political rumour mills in Uttar Pradesh busy. First, he skipped the SP’s meeting with allies on 29 March and chose to call on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath the very next day. Two days later, he began following Adityanath, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma on Twitter. Last Monday, he tweeted a chaupayi (quatrain) from the Ramayana calling Lord Ram’s character “the best school for family, culture, and nation”.
So, what is Shivpal Yadav up to? Although he’s keeping his cards close to his chest at the moment, his overtures to the BJP, and Adityanath in particular, have sparked speculation that he could be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rikshpal Choudhury, vice-president of Shivpal’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), told ThePrint that Shivpal will visit Ayodhya after Navratri, and sources in the party said he could announce a decision after the visit.
Asked about Shivpal’s impending visit, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said those who had stayed away from Lord Ram and were now worshipping him were welcome.
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Where things stand with SP
All’s not well between Shivpal and his nephew Akhilesh Yadav, currently the head of the Samajwadi Party. Their power tussle that led to Mulayam expelling his own son, the chief minister of the state, from the party in December 2016 is a well-documented fact. Although Mulayam reversed the decision within 24 hours, the feud between Akhilesh and Shivpal continued, leading to the latter forming his own outfit, the Samajwadi Secular Morcha — later renamed the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia — in August 2018.
The PSP-Lohia drew a blank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but managed to make a dent in the SP vote share. As a consequence, the SP won only five seats and lost three strongholds: Kannauj, Badaun, and Firozabad.
The Yadav clan patched things up just before last month’s assembly elections when Shivpal’s PSP-L came together with the SP. What’s more significant is that Shivpal contested the election as an SP candidate from Jaswantnagar and won.
Insiders in the SP say Akhilesh’s decision to mend the fences was to prevent a split of the Yadav votes. Now, however, he does not seem inclined to convince Shivpal to stay within the party. Sources in the Shivpal camp claim that he had joined hands with his nephew because he didn’t want to be seen as “breaking up the party (SP)”.
Just how bothered Akhilesh was could be seen in a recent press interaction: When some asked him about the possibility of his uncle joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, he told them not to “waste their time” on this issue.
Reports suggest Akhilesh is yet to reach out to his uncle despite indications that the latter was exploring options outside the SP.
Talking to ThePrint, former SP leader Hariom Yadav, an ex-MLA from Sirsaganj who joined the BJP just before this past election, claimed that the BJP was willing to give Shivpal some seats in the Lok Sabha elections, but he turned down the offer.
“He (Shivpal) has made some mistakes,” Hariom said. “I’d advised Shivpal ji to join the BJP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls too. The BJP was ready to give them some seats at that time. His respect in the eyes of the people would have gone up. But he did not listen because of his love for his brother.”
Akhilesh, Haroim said, was a leader who did not share his father’s personal equations across party lines.
“Mulayam ji was an astute politician, but on a personal basis, the kind of relationship he shared with Atal ji and other BJP leaders was unmatched. Despite political rivalries, Mulayam had friends across party lines,” he said. “For Akhilesh, things are not the same: He is a non-political kind of person. He is unable to handle his family — he did not talk to his uncle for a year. How will he run the state or nation?”
Shivpal’s worry
What’s worrying the 67-year-old Shivpal most is his son Aditya’s political future. Shivpal’s request for a seat for his son was turned down. When the Yadav clan was still united, Shivpal was known as an “organisation man” who still wields some influence in the SP and among a section of Yadavs.
“Like any father, his wish is that his son gets accommodated. Talks are on about his role,” a PSP-L leader told ThePrint.
A Shivpal loyalist said more slights came after the election, when the leader was left out of a meeting of party MLAs Akhilesh called on 26 March.
“He (Shivpal) was a star campaigner for the SP towards the middle of the election and campaigned for Akhilesh with his full might. However, Shivpal was not invited to the March meeting despite having won the election on an SP ticket. This he took to be the ultimate humiliation and decided to act,” the loyalist said.
Political expert Brajesh Shukla said Shivpal faced “repeated humiliations” from the party and now has few options. Besides, he knows that he can regain his political hold only with BJP’s help, Shukla said.
“Negotiations must have taken place already. The wait is because a deputy speaker has to be elected. The session could be called soon,” Shukla said. “Besides, neither BJP nor Shivpal is in a hurry.”
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What the BJP can offer
The induction of Shivpal into the BJP in the near future could be significant, especially given by-election for the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat is due within six months. Azamgarh is an SP stronghold — Mulayam Singh Yadav won it by a margin of 63,204 votes in 2014, and Akhilesh won the seat in 2019 by 2,59,874 lakh votes. Last month, the SP won all 10 assembly seats in Azamgarh.
The seat fell vacant when Akhilesh resigned from Lok Sabha membership, after winning the Karhal assembly seat last month.
What could the BJP offer Shivpal? “That the party will decide,” Hariom said. “What if the party wants something around the Azamgarh bypoll? You should wait.”
Another BJP leader who was previously with the SP told ThePrint that Shivpal’s move to the BJP would ensure SP now has a single power centre in Akhilesh — something for which rival Mayawati, the supremo of the Bahujan Samaj Party, is widely known.
“It is a tussle for power. The party will now be a one-man show as it is being ensured that Shivpal’s influence over the SP is eliminated,” he said.
When ThePrint asked why there was no attempt by the SP to keep Shivpal within the party fold, SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary sidestepped the question. He said Shivpal was still an MLA of the Samajwadi Party and was even invited to a meeting of the party and its allies.
“The rest is between the family,” he said. “Their fight (in 2016) was over the party symbol but they came to the understanding that they would both fight under the SP’s symbol (the cycle).”
Although he denied the allegation that Akhilesh would become the sole power centre of the SP, another senior leader of the party admitted there seemed to be no end to the family’s infighting.
“This (Shivpal’s possible exit) is a result of the family feud that has been going on for years now,” he said. The state government under Adityanath had even allotted a coveted bungalow to Shivpal in Lucknow’s posh Mall Avenue, he pointed out. On 12 October 2018 — months before the 2019 general elections — the Adityanath government allotted Shivpal a bungalow, 6 Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, a house that Mayawati was forced to vacate months earlier on the Supreme Court’s orders.
A youth leader from the SP said that although the party was watching Shivpal’s moves, it would not act until the latter chose to act.
“Politics is about possibilities,” he said. “Till the time it (Shivpal coming together with BJP) happens, we cannot be sure,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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Source: The Print
