Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav said on Friday he is forming a new party ‘Samajwadi Secular Morcha’, news agency ANI reported. Mulayam Singh Yadav will be the chief of the new party, he said.
Shivpal said the new party aims to bring true Samajwadis together. Shivpal, who has a running feud with former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, had intended to form a new party before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Neta ji ko unka sammaan vapas dilane, aur Samajawadion ko ek saath laane ke liye is morche ka jald hi ailaan hoga:Shivpal Yadav to ANI
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 5, 2017
“Akhilesh had promised to hand over the party to ‘netaji’ (Mulayam). He should now do so and we all will strengthen the SP. I had also given him three months’ time. Otherwise, I will constitute a new secular front,”
Shivpal was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on Wednesday. Adding that he would unite all ‘Samajwadis’ (socialists), Shivpal had said he would bring them on a common platform.
At the press conference on Wednesday, Shivpal also alleged that the police had been harassing people in his assembly constituency of Jaswantnagar.
"When corrupt persons and officials join hands with government, harassment of people begins and such a thing had happened in the previous government. It has also started in the present regime. I will meet the chief minister and apprise him of the situation," he said.
Shivpal hit back at party leader Ram Gopal Yadav who had accused him of not having read the party constitution and said that Akhilesh cannot give party president-ship to anyone as the Samajwadi Party general body had elected him.
"Those who are teaching me party's constitution should read the Gita. Everyone knows who made the party (Samajwadi Party) and built it," Shivpal said adding that for him 'Netaji' was everything.
Those who are claiming themselves to be samajwadis had distributed tickets in Lok Sabha polls and the party won only 5 out of 80 seats in the state, he said.
"Because of them, in the Assembly polls too the party's tally came down to 47 from 227 in the 403-member House. They should analyse (why)," he said attacking Akhilesh.
Shivpal had recently said he would soon launch a campaign to unite the "samajwadis" (socialists) to bring them on a single platform.
The Samajwadi Party contested the polls under Akhilesh's leadership but suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP. Post the election defeat, uncle Shivpal held Akhilesh and Rahul's alliance responsible for a humiliating drubbing.
Even before the elections, Shivpal had expressed defiance against the SP-Congress alliance. After filing his nomination for the state polls in January, Shivpal had said he would form a new party after the election results are declared. But, subsequently he had said there was no such move.
Many in the party had blamed the power struggle between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal as the reason behind Samajwadi Party’s dismal performance in the recent state elections where the party was able to secure seats in only 54 out of the 403 constituencies.
