Lucknow: Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday indicated that he was strongly opposed to a split in the Samajwadi Party, while berating son Akhilesh Yadav’s move to ally with Congress, which he claimed had left no stone unturned to “ruin” him.
“Efforts should be made to strengthen the Samajwadi Party,” he said, when asked about Shivpal’s comments about forming a new front if party chief Akhilesh Yadav does not hand over the reins to Mulayam in three months.
A feud between uncle Shivpal and nephew Akhilesh has been plaguing the Samajwadi party for the past several months and even affected its performance in the UP assembly polls. Mulayam on Sunday however blamed the defeat on son Akhilesh’s decision to ally with a Congress, which he said had tried its best to “ruin” him. “Alliance with the Congress is responsible for the present poor state of the party. I had advised Akhilesh not to go ahead with it, but he did. The SP is itself responsible for its defeat and not the people of the state,” he said.
“Congress left no stone unturned to ruin my life. It (Congress) lodged cases against me and Akhilesh forged alliance with it,” Mulayam told reporters.
He made the remarks during a visit to Junesa village in Karhalhere in party bastion Mainpuri, where he was to unveil a statue of martyr Dharmendra Yadav. On Shivpal’s comment terming SP MP Ramgopal Yadav as “Shakuni”, Mulayam said, “Whatever he (Shivpal) said is true. Attempts were made to ensure his defeat and money was also spent for it.” “What he (Ramgopal) has done, only Shakuni-Mama did, so, it’s my request to him to first read the Gita,” Shivpal had said, likening him to ‘Shakuni’, the Mahabharat character who masterminded the feud between Kauravs and the Pandavas.
However, senior SP leader Shivpal Yadav on Sunday lauded the SP patriarch, as he took to a movie dialogue to eulogise Mulayam, his elder brother. “Jahan netaji (Mulayam) khade ho jaate hain, wahi se Samajwadi Party ki shuruwat hoti hai (Samajwadi Party starts from where netaji stands),” Shivpal said on Sunday, two days after announcing that he would constitute a Samajwadi secular front. (PTI)
