Moving a step ahead, the newly-formed Samajwadi Secular Morcha announced its first list of spokespersons, in Lucknow on Wednesday.
A total of nine former Samajwadi Party leaders who were either marginalised or shown the door by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in 2017, figure in the list of SSM spokespersons.
They include former SP MLA and ministers Sharda Pratap Shukla, Shadab Fatima. The others are Nawab Ali Akbar, Deepak Mishra, Sudhir Singh, Dileep Yadav, Abhishek Singh Ashu, Mohammad Farhat Raees Khan and Arvind Yadav.
Shukla said that the panellists would now take on Samajwadi Party in debates at various forms, including TV channels, and expose the deeds of Akhilesh Yadav.
Earlier on Tuesday, speaking at a function in Lucknow, SSM founder Shivpal Singh Yadav had compared SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to Kauravs in the epic Mahabharat.
"Pandavs had asked for five villages from the Kauravs. Likewise, I had only asked for respect. I have taken this step after waiting for two years and after consultation with Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav). Now there is no turning back," Shivpal said.
"I never wanted infighting. But some people were helping my opponents. People generally get arrogant when they taste power, just like Ravana. I came into politics after Netaji told me. I would have been a farmer otherwise. Had I been given a ticket in 1980, I would have won, but I got the ticket in 1996 when Netaji joined national politics," he said.
Shivpal also ruled out any patch up with his nephew and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and stressed that he was going for a 'dharma yuddh' against the evil.