Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will launch his election campaign from Saturday with addressing an election meeting Jaswant nagar assembly seat in Etawah district. Mulayams younger brother Shivpal Yadav is seeking re election from this seat for the fifth consecutive term.
Interestingly, the day and time chosen for the Mulayam’s meeting coincides with the release of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) to be released in lucknow jointly by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Both the programme are scheduled to be held at 10 am on Saturday. Mulayam’s meeting would be held in Takha area of Jaswantnagar assembly seat.
Shivpal Yadav had recently created flutter in the party by declaring that he would float a new political party after the assembly election results are announced. Mulayam Singh Yadav had however defended his brother saying `` he would have made the statement out of anger and no inference be drawn from that statement’’.
The SP patron will also campaign for his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav on February 14, who is contesting from lucknow (Cantonment) assembly seat. Mulayam had skipped campaigning for any candidate in the first two phases of the UP assembly elections even though both the Samajwadi Party as well as the lok Dal have made him the star campaigner of their respective parties in the elections.
Mulayam Singh earlier had not opposed the alliance of the Samajwadi party with the Congress saying it was ``absolutely unnecessary’’ as the SP was competent to contest the election on its own strength and also form the government. He later not only issued appeal to his supporters to file nomination papers against the congress candidates to defeat them. He had also refused to campaign for the alliance. He later changed his mind and not only accepted the alliance but also agreed to campaign saying `` he will have to campaign for the party since the party is facing the election and has also forged alliance with the Congress’’.