Brother and a close aid of Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh, Shivpal Yadav said he'll form new party.
Shivpal Yadav, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's estranged uncle, will contest the Uttar Pradesh elections as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party, but said he would reserve his campaigning for his supporters forced to contest as rebels and independents after being denied ticket by the party. Shivpal Yadav has also vowed to launch his own party after results for the UP assembly elections are announced on March 11.
The Chief Minister's uncle, isolated after Akhilesh Yadav took control of the party ahead of the crucial elections, was in Jaswant Nagar to file his nomination papers. While Akhilesh Yadav gave in to his father Mulayam Singh Yadav's request that Shivpal be fielded by the party, most of his supporters - many strong candidates, he said - have not been fielded.
"They were struck off the list of candidates to make me weak," Shivpal Yadav, 61, alleged in an attack on his nephew, who is now party president and is taking all the crucial decisions on the UP elections including sealing an alliance with the Congress.
Akhilesh Yadav's father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has made it clear that he does not approve of the new partnership but his opinion is moot. Akhilesh Yadav has handed his father, who launched the Samajwadi Party 25 years ago, an advisory role as mentor.
For months before the elections, Shivpal Yadav needled and undermined the Chief Minister and was consistently backed by Mulayam SIngh, who is Shivpal Yadav's older brother.
"Netaji was attacked because he and I were speaking out against those who were doing wrong. I repeatedly requested Akhilesh not to insult Mulayam Singh but he didn't listen," a bitter Shivpal Yadav alleged today.
Shivpal Yadav said if the party had not fielded him, he would have contested as an independent candidate from the Jaswant Nagar constituency, which he represents.