Shivpal drops ‘SP’ from his Facebook, Twitter profiles
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav on Sunday removed the term ‘Samajwadi Party’ from his profile and banner pictures on his Twitter and Facebook pages. He described himself as a ‘Leader, Samajwadi Secular Morcha’, an outfit whose formation he announced last week.
Shivpal Yadav is the SP’s Jaswant Nagar MLA at present.
Till Saturday, the Twitter handle of Shivpal had described him as ‘Senior Samajwadi Party leader and Jaswant Nagar MLA’. The banner picture had shown him addressing a rally with SP flags around. Now, the picture has been replaced with one that has no party symbol and flags. The profile says ‘Leader, Samajwadi Secular Morcha and Member of UP Legislative Assembly for Jaswant Nagar’.
Shivpal on Wednesday announced formation of the Samajwadi Secular Morcha and on Friday followed it up by saying the morcha will contest all 80 UP Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 LS polls. When asked to respond to Shivpal’s move, Akhilesh on Saturday had said: “This shows, we have democracy in our family.”
Soon after Shivpal announced his Samajwadi Secular Morcha, the SP leaders alleged the BJP was behind Shivpal’s move.
Deputy chief minister and BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya had denied the allegation. He said: “The BJP has nothing to do with the feud in the SP that had been brewing for long. But yes, we had been saying for long how can someone, who didn’t prove true to his father, be expected to treat others differently. As far as Shivpalji’s secular morcha is concerned, we hope it will be against parivarvaad (dynastic politics), jaativaad (nationalist) that has come to identify the present-day SP. So in that sense, we see it as a positive development. As far as this development having a bearing on our electoral fortunes is concerned, let me say that BJP today is a party that is led by the most powerful leader in the world Narendra Modi, one who has been tirelessly working for the common man. The world is realising India’s growing power.”