After five years of split in 2017, Chacha Shivpal Yadav and Bhatija Akhilesh Yadav are expected to bury the hatchet and join hands to take on the BJP in 2022 UP Assembly polls. The patch up is likely to be announced on the birthday of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in November. After several failed attempts, Mulayam has brokered the deal and likely to succeed.
Political observers have been batting for this alliance if the mighty BJP were to be given any competition in the upcoming polls. On January 15, 2017, then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh wrested control of the SP from his father Mulayam and uncle Shivpal, putting an end to a four-month family feud which came to the fore in October 2016.
This happened day after Mulayam was forced to revoke Akhilesh’s expulsion, along with that of Akhilesh supporter Ram Gopal Yadav. SP members gathered in thousands in Lucknow’s Janeshwar Mishra Park for an emergency national executive meeting.
Ram Gopal had called the meeting to counter what he called unprecedented, unconstitutional actions by Mulayam where Akhilesh was expelled from the party.
At the height of the political drama Mulayam called a meeting of the party’s Parliamentary board at his residence around the same time. But no person of consequence turned up at the Mulayam meeting.
The bitter dispute in the first family of the SP resulted in March 2017 UP Assembly polls poor performance where the tally of the party was reduced to 48 MLAs. Shivpal, on September 2018, announced to float new political party Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party after falling out with Akhilesh. Shivpal had complained that during the tenure of Akhilesh as Chief Minister he felt neglected in the SP, which was founded by his elder brother Mulayam. Meanwhile, Akhilesh kept ruling out any alliance with his uncle all these years. The duo did not come together even for Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Earlier this year hinting at a possible electoral tie-up with his estranged uncle’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Akhilesh said Shivpal will be given a Cabinet berth if his party forms the Government in the State. However, he made it clear that the SP will not enter into any electoral alliance with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
To a question whether the SP will form an electoral alliance with his uncle Shivpal’s party, he said, “We will adjust that party. Jaswantnagar is his (Shivpal) seat and the SP will not field from this seat. Shivpal was elected from the Jaswantnagar Assembly constituency in the 2017 State elections