Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav on Friday said that the unity in the family was possible only if Akhilesh Yadav steps down and hands over the post of national president to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
He said that Akhilesh was responsible for the SP’s worst-ever poll debacle as he was at the helm and took all important decisions during the Assembly poll.
“Akhilesh Yadav should own the moral responsibility for the crushing defeat of the party in the recent Assembly poll and step down from the post of party chief,” said Shivpal.
“Akhilesh has abysmally failed in keeping the family and the party together after taking over as the Samajwadi Party national president. Only he is responsible for the present dismal state of the party. He could neither handle the affairs of the party nor keep the family united,” said Shivpal at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh.
“In January, after taking over as SP chief, Akhilesh had made two promises — the SP will form the next Government and he will hand over the
post of national president to Netaji after the elections. But the SP failed to form the Government, so he should at least honour the second promise,” said Shivpal.
“During the 2014 lok Sabha poll, Akhilesh was the Chief Minister and the party tally was reduced to mere 5 seats. In 2017 Assembly poll, Akhilesh was also the national SP chief and claimed to
form the next Government after forging alliance with
the Congress. But he
failed. So it’s high time that Akhilesh steps down,” said Shivpal.
After the recent Assembly poll rout, Shivpal has been running a campaign and mobilising support within the party to mount pressure on Akhilesh to step down from
the post of national president. He has maintained that Akhilesh should honour his promise and hand over reins
of the party to his father Mulayam.
During the elections in January, Shivpal had said he would float a new political party after Assembly poll. later his meeting with the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP president Amit Shah fuelled speculations that he might join the BJP.
Samajwadi Party sources said Shivpal was ‘very restive’ over his non-entity status in
the party and wants an early end to the deadlock in the
family.