Mulayam pulls a surprise, shares dais with Shivpal
ON LOHIA DEATH ANNIVERSARY Samajwadi Party patriarch says if someone does injustice to younger brother, it should be opposed
LUCKNOW: Just when the political circles in Lucknow started concluding that the Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is supporting his son and SP president Akhilesh Yadav, the veteran leader sprung a surprise on Friday by sharing the dais with his brother and rebel leader Shivpal Yadav.
Shivpal, under the banner of his newly-formed Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM), had organised an event at the Lohia Trust office to mark the death anniversary of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.
By making an appearance and reaching out to his brother while addressing the event, Mulayam left political observers as well as Shivpal and Akhilesh camps surprised.
“Injustice must always be opposed. If a person does injustice to his younger brother or vice versa, it must be opposed. Such were the thoughts and philosophy of Dr Lohia and I agree with his views. Wherever there is injustice, be it in family, village or city, voice must be raised against it. Lohia always sided with justice and always opposed injustice,” Mulayam said.
Mulayam also released a CD and the hard copy of an anthology of Lohia’s speeches edited by Shivpal’s aide Deepak Mishra. Deepak was among those who were ousted from the SP during the Yadav family feud.
Addressing the programme, Shivpal said: “Netaji’s (Mulayam’s) blessings were with us in the past and will remain so in future. In politics, I follow Netaji’s ideals. If he is with us, we will bring a about a revolution following the philosophy of Dr Lohia. We will bring in change in the state and the country.”
After Shivpal formed his new political front on August 29, Mulayam visited the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow twice and shared the dais with Akhilesh at Jantar Mantar in Delhi but this is for the first time that he has attended any public event organised by Shivpal’s Morcha.
Like the Samajwadi Party, Shivpal has been projecting Lohia as the icon of his political front too.
Shivpal, who was sidelined after Akhilesh took over the party’s leadership in January 2017, touched Mulayam’s feet and the two were seen walking handin-hand at the event before Mulayam paid floral tribute to Lohia.
Mulayam had also showed a similar camaraderie and body language with Akhilesh during the culmination event of SP’s cycle rally in Delhi on September 23. There have been no signs of reconciliation between Shivpal and Akhilesh in the recent past. After forming his Morcha, Shivpal had announced that he would field candidates on all 80 UP Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and all 403 Vidhan Sabha seats in 2022 UP elections.
He has been inducting SP rebels in the Morcha on a daily basis and has planned a big road show in Firozabad, the constituency from where he is likely to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.