‘TRIED TO KEEP SP TOGETHER’: SHIVPAL ANNOUNCES HIS PARTY

LUCKNOW: Rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav declared on Tuesday that the name of his new political party is “Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia)”, setting the stage for a fresh stand-off with his nephew and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Yadav, the younger brother of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and a former heavyweight Uttar Pradesh minister, made the announcement at a membership drive for his Samajwadi Secular Morcha, which he had formed on August 29.

He has already announced the intention of contesting all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 polls.

He said on Tuesday that his party had been registered with the Election Commission.

The SSM and the new party will co-exist, and the morcha will try and bring more likeminded parties under the same umbrella, sources said. Yadav said he tried his best to hold the Samajwadi Party (SP) together but that he decided to chart his own course after being pushed into a corner.

“As a minister inSamajwadi Party (SP) government, I must say I did a credible job and worked hard to consolidate the party, but ultimately the sycophants prevailed. I was insulted in the party, Netaji’s (Mulayam Singh Yadav) honour too was compromised. I waited for very long but ultimately decided to take this step.”