UP is all set to witness ripple effect of Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar deserting the secular grand alliance and joining hands with the BJP-led NDA. Shivpal Yadav, the senior Samajwadi party leader and sulking uncle of the party president Akhilesh Yadav, is likely to join the NDA camp by joining the Janata Dal (United) in UP. Shivpal Yadav desperately in search for viable political alternative after being marginalsed by his nephew in the Samajwadi Party is likely to be appointed as the State president of the JD(U).
Sources close to Shivpal Yadav said the dissident Samajwadi party leader is weighing his options. One of the options considered by Shivpal Yadav is to join the JD(U) of Nitish Kumar and become part of the NDA. Shivpal Yadav, sources said, has already held preliminary talks with some of the JD(U) leaders. The other option is to float a new party of his own and ally with the NDA.
Shivpal left for Delhi on Saturday and met his mentor and the party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and discussed his options with him. Shivpal is understood to have met some senior BJP leaders in Delhi. Both Shivpal and Mulayam Singh Yadav were engaged in a bitter fight with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav for the last seven 10 months.
Shivpal had also met the senior JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav in Delhi. Sharad Yadav is said to be unhappy with Nitish Kumar for snapping ties with the Congress and lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. He is however yet to make a public statement on the decision of the party president Nitish Kumar.
Sources said the other option before Shivpal Yadav is to float new political. Shivpal Yadav has already announced to float ‘Secular Samajwadi Front’. He has also toured different districts of the state in July to mobalise support for the proposed front.
Shivpal Yadav is however keeping his cards close to his chest and refused to reveal his future course of action. “There is no substance in perception that I am going to join JD (U). Such reports have appeared in a section of media these are sponsored stories being fed to media by vested interests’’, said Shivpal Yadav on Sunday.
“I want to keep the family united. Had we been united then the Samajwadi party would have won the UP assembly election and Akhilesh Yadav would have been the chief minister. There are certain forces which are against unity in our family’’; said Shivpal Yadav.
Claiming that he is working for the Secular Samajwadi front shivpal Yadav said “I want to mobalise the forces of social justice on one platform. I want to unite all the neglected and marginalised Samajwadis on the platform of the secular front’’.
Shivpal Yadav however revealed his strategy by issuing a subtle warning to Akhilesh Yadav saying Rs Rs there still scope of patch up if Akhilesh Yadav handover the reins of the party to Mulayam Singh Yadav. If Akhilesh is willing then we are willing to bury the hatchet otherwise the situation will turn from bad to worse for Akhilesh and Samajwadi party in coming days’’.
Akhilesh Yadav has the firm control over the party and he has strengthened his grip on the party after the assembly elections. Right now the agenda before Akhilesh Yadav is to hold the national convention of the party and organizational elections in September. This will further strengthen his grip over the party.
