In a surprise move, senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav met BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi on Friday. Yadav however refused to speak to the media about the meeting and dismissed it saying it was only a figment of the media’s imagination.
SP sources however said that Shivpal has been camping in Delhi since Tuesday to meet Shah. After meeting the BJP president returned to lucknow on Thursday noon.
Earlier on April 5, Shivpal Yadav had met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with his son Aditya Yadav. The meeting triggered speculations that he was attempting to join the BJP after being marginalized in the Samajwadi Party by his nephew Akhilesh Yadav.
Sources however said that Shivpal through his meetings with Yogi Adityanath and Amit Shah was trying to mount pressure on Akhilesh Yadav to initiate unity efforts in the party and end the discord within the first family.
A SP Rajya Sabha MP said that this kind of deadlock at the top cannot be allowed to continue for an indefinite period and this had already taken a heavy toll in the form of the worst ever poll debacle in the recent Assembly poll. The feud in the SP’s first family came to the fore in September 2016 and continues unabated.
``Instead of drawing lessons from the poll rout, both factions were trying to paint each other as the villain rather then thinking of challenges ahead. We have to face the election of urban local bodies and the by-poll to two Assembly and two lok Sabha seats in coming months. But the party seems to be clueless,’’ said the SP Rajya Sabha member.
``The open offer given by Mayawati for alliance with any party for future political battle will also add to the pressure on Akhilesh to respond and live up to his supporters’ expectations. Before responding to BSP overtures, Akhilesh will have to restore order within the party and end the dispute,’’ said the SP leader.
SP leaders however expect little from both factions as both seem to be adamant to fight till the end. The battle of supremacy within the party has reached an interesting stage where both uncle Shivpal and his nephew Akhilesh are waiting for the other to strike first.
Shivpal wants to desert the party and Akhilesh wants to throw him out of the party. Shivpal is in the process of forming a new party and Akhilesh is waiting for that day. Yet both factions have refrained from firing the first salvo. The rift within SP’s first family is growing by each passing day and prospects of an amicable patchup seems negligible.