Shivpal Yadav to meet Yogi Adityanath today, days after Mulayam Singh's daughter-in-law visited him
It's a beeline of Samajwadi Party Yadavs to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of the BJP. After party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's Chhotti Bahu Aparna Yadav, his younger brother Shivpal Yadav today met Yogi Adityanath in what is being described as a courtesy call to congratulate the new Chief Minister.
Shivpal Yadav's visit coincided with sharp criticism by his nephew and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav of the new UP government for what he has called a "betrayal" of farmers.
"Promise was to waive the entire loan... farmers are feeling cheated as the government fixed a limit of Rs one lakh. The poor farmers have been betrayed," Akhilesh Yadav, UP's former chief minister, tweeted last night on a waiver of almost 40,000 crore in farmer loans announced by the Yogi Adiyanath government after its first cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav have been estranged for months in a family feud that left the Samajwadi Party in disarray just before the crucial UP assembly elections. Akhilesh Yadav wrested control of the party from his father Mulayam Singh and uncle Shivpal Yadav, but his strategy to ally with the Congress flopped and the BJP swept the state, winning 325 of UP's 403 seats along with its allies.
The Samajwadi Party could send only 47 legislators to the state assembly, among them Shivpal Yadav. Aparna Yadav, the wife of Prateek, Mulayam Singh's younger son and Akhilesh Yadav's step brother, lost the election. But Prateek and she were among early visitors to congratulate Yogi Adityanath after he was sworn in chief minister, carrying bouquets of flowers.
A few days later the young Yadav couple was seen escorting the Chief Minister when he visited a cow shelter that they run.
"He is every one's chief minister," said Aparna Yadav, 27, dismissing speculation that she is appearing closer to the BJP, with brother-in-law Akhilesh Yadav tightening his grip on the Samajwadi Party.
Aparna and Prateek are seen to side with Shivpal Yadav in the family feud. Shivpal, now sidelined in the party, has also consistently found support from Mulayam Singh Yadav in his tussle with Akhilesh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of the Samajwadi Party, and who had addressed over 300 rallies in the 2012 UP elections, campaigned only for Shivpal Yadav and Aparna Yadav this year.