Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav lashed out at his nephew and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, accusing the latter of ‘political immaturity’. The development comes days after the Samajwadi Party sent him a letter informing the senior politician that he was free to go wherever he thought he would get more respect – an apparent jibe at his growing proximity with the BJP.
“I came to know that I’ve been given official freedom. I think it’s immaturity. When I contested polls, I resigned from my party and took membership of Samajwadi Party. It would have been better if they would have removed me from the legislature party,” the PSP chief said today.
The SP had sent a similar letter to another ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar after the two leaders opted to support the National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. The SP meanwhile had backed Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha.
“It would have been better had I been given ‘mukti‘ (relief) from the party. When such letters are being written to me, I am not invited to the legislature party meetings or my suggestions are not accepted, there would have been no heartburn if given mukti,” he added.
Yadav also contended that ‘maturity’ would have enabled the SP to form the government in the 2022 Assembly elections. “You have seen where the party was and where it has reached now. Had that maturity been there, the party would have formed its government in 2022 and Akhilesh would have been the chief minister,” he opined.
Shivpal Yadav had contested the recent state polls on an SP ticket and won from his traditional Jaswant Nagar seat in Etawah district. The “Chacha-Bhatija” had patched up ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls at the behest of party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav. However, the bonhomie between the two did not last long and they drifted apart after suffering a defeat at the hands of the BJP.
