The acrimony within the first family of the Samajwadi Party seems to be rising as party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said that Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav could face the wrath of the SP cadre for his comments on alleged mining scam during the Akhilesh Yadav regime.
Responding to the comment, Shivpal Yadav, the cousin of Ram Gopal Yadav, said, “Ram Gopal Yadav is my elder brother and he has every right to thrash me or get it be done by someone else.”
The verbal fight ensued after Shivpal recently tried to corner SP president Akhilesh Yadav on the mining scam issue.
Enraged by Shivpal’s comment, the SP general secretary said that keeping in mind the kind of comments being made by the former, the PSPL founder could be thrashed anywhere by SP supporters.
In an informal interaction with the media in Etawah on Monday, Shivpal Yadav said, “Although, he is my elder brother, he can thrash me or get me thrashed but it is equally true that he has destroyed the samajwadi aandolan (socialist movement). SP had strong base in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Bihar, all that has vanished.”
Shivpal alleged that Ram Gopal had derailed the progress of the socialist movement across the country and while earlier the SP had MLAs in many states, today very few were left.
On the possible alliance with other parties, Shivpal said, “We are still making efforts for the united front of all secular parties against the BJP and are ready to talk to any party, including the Congress.”
Shivpal Yadav claimed that no party was in the position to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre without PSPL support.