Shivpal Yadav forms new front with Mulayam in UP

The Yadav family feud came to the fore again on Friday when senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Singh Yadav formed a new front, Samajwadi Secular Front (SSF), under SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Within a week of the Congress snapping ties with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP, Shivpal's threat to split the SP is a major jolt to Akhilesh. The Congress has announced that it will contest the municipal polls on its own.

Shivpal seems to have some tacit support from Mulayam, who had blamed Akhilesh again two days ago for the party's debacle in the Assembly polls. Shivpal said in Etawah that he was in touch with all SP and like-minded leaders and parties to give a final shape to SSF.

"We are also contacting SP leaders who left the party in disgust," he added.

For the past few days, Shivpal has been making statements advising his nephew Akhilesh to quit and surrender the post of SP national president to Mulayam as promised by him on January 1, 2017. Akhilesh had said that he would hand over the charge to his father in "three months after the SP returns to power".

Shivpal claimed that the main aim of the new front was to bring in like-minded parties under one platform to take on communal forces. Both Mulayam and Shivpal had gone to Etawah, their hometown, to see their ailing brother-in-law Ajat Singh Yadav. While Shivpal talked to the media, Mulayam kept a stoic silence.

Lok Dal had earlier offered a political platform to both Mulayam and Shivpal to lead the party when Akhilesh staged a coup against his father to become the SP national president. The Lok Dal, led by Sunil Singh, had given support to many rebel SP candidates who were denied tickets by Akhilesh.

Relations between the two warring factions have soured to the extent that both father and son have not seen each other after results were announced.

SP insiders claim that about a dozen party MLAs feel frustrated under Akhilesh and may join the new front. Azam Khan has always been a Mulayam loyalist and would remain so wherever he goes. A few senior SP leaders who had joined the BSP may also return to the new front.

The new front, if led by Mulayam, may also cause a setback to attempts being made at the national level to form a similar front to take on Modi in the 2019 parliamentary polls. Mulayam will never be a part of any front if the BSP and Congress are part of it.