Faced with `all dressed up and nowhere to go’ situation, Shivpal Yadav marginalized in Samajwadi Party by nephew Akhilesh Yadav, has found a new vocation – campaigning for rebel candidates contesting against official SP candidates in the Urban local Bodies elections.
Shivpal had earlier campaigned for Independent candidate from Jaswantnagar palika parishad in Etawah Sunil Jolly against SP candidate Satyanaryan Mudgal. He is also a SP MlA from Jaswantnagar seat earlier represented by his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Shivpal offered that neither he nor Mulayam Singh were consulted by Samajwadi Party before deciding tickets for Jaswantnagar seat and hence he decided to support for the Independent candidate as per wishes of the rank and file of the party in Jaswantnagar.
On Saturday, the SP leader campaigned for Independent candidate Kalpana Gupta in the fray for the post of chairman of Bidhuna nagar palika parishad in Auriyya. She is the wife of former SP MlA from Bidhuna, Pramod Gupta, the brother-in-law of Mulayam Singh. Akhilesh had earlier denied ticket to Kalpana Gupta.
Addressing the meeting in Bidhuna on Saturday, Shivpal appealed to local voters to ensure the victory of Kalpana Gupta as she and her husband were not only committed leaders of Samajwadi Party but also are closely related to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
As soon as Urban local Bodies elections were announced in October, Shivpal had announced that he was ready for campaigning for party candidates. However, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav chose to ignore the `goodwill gesture’.
Ever since the reelection of Akhilesh Yadav as SP national president during the Agra convention on October 5, the first family of Samajwadi Party has been claiming that all was well in the party and the family. However, Shivpal was conspicuous by his absence at the state SP convention in lucknow in September and later at Agra on October 5.
Shivpal was not even invited by the SP president for birthday celebrations of Mulayam Singh Yadav at the state SP office in lucknow on November 22.