No Merger, Says Shivpal Yadav As He Hails UP CM Yogi Adityanath as Honest & Dedicated

Lucknow: Rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and founder of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) Shivpal Yadav has, for now, laid to rest all speculations about a merger of his party with the SP.

Addressing a press conference at the party office in Lucknow on Friday, Shivpal said, “We are a strong and growing party in the state and will contest the 2022 assembly election on our own with our full might. We will take up the issues of people and fight for them. Our party will play an important role in the state politics.”

However, the younger brother of SP Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav also hailed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his honesty and dedication at the press meet, even as he attacked state ministers for indulging in corruption.

He said, “The UP CM is an honest and dedicated man, but his ministers are spreading corruption from their air-conditioned rooms. Crimes like rapes and murders are on the rise, but our state police is busy elsewhere. The issue of law and order is not the priority of the government it seems.”

Following a bad performance of the SP in the recent general election, rumours were rife that the Yadav clan might forget its differences and come together for the next state poll.

There were also reports that the SP patriarch had asked his son and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to bring senior leaders back into the party fold.

Following differences with Akhilesh, Shivpal floated his party in 2018 stating that he was not getting his “due respect in the SP.”

The formation of the new party ahead of the Lok Sabha election was seen as an attempt to dent the SP’s vote-base, which many believe Shivpal managed to do quite well.

He contested and lost from the Firozabad parliamentary constituency, but ensured a split among SP voters which ultimately resulted in the loss of SP candidate and Shivpal’s nephew Akshay Yadav.

Earlier, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had allegedly blamed Shivpal for splitting votes in the state’s Yadav-dominated seats and indirectly helped the BJP.