Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Shivpal seeks to revive secular front

- HT Correspond­ent

Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav will talk to senior non-bjp leaders to revive the secular front that he had started to construct before the Bihar assembly elections in 2015.

On Friday, Shivpal announced the formation of a Samajwadi Secular Morcha on the lines of a revolution­ary front that his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav had floated after the split in Charan Singh’s Lok Dal. Mulayam had then headed Lok Dal (A), which had a limited base in UP. While Mulayam has not spoken on the impending split in the party that he floated in the early 1990s Shivpal put all specu reluctance to head the front. “He is very much on board. Without his blessings, we would not have taken such a major step,” he said.

Shivpal who had played a key Grand Alliance under Mulayam’s leadership, said a similar front at the national level would be constitute­d to take on communal forces and deliver jus

Mulayam had withdrawn from the alliance of Congress, Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal before Bihar assembly elections. Without naming the senior leaders with whom he is holding talks, Shivpal mentioned Gandhiwadi (Congress), Lohiawadi (Socialist leaders such as Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar) and followers of Charan Singh (Rashtriya Lok Dal of Choudhary Ajit Singh) as potential allies. He said the response to their decision to float a secular front was overwhelmi­ng and he was flooded with calls from all over India.

Shivpal said before UP polls he had initiated a dialogue to seal pre-poll alliance with Quami Ekta Dal and Rashtriya Lok Dal but in house conspirato­rs threw

 ?? PTI FILE ?? SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav with brother Shivpal, who on Friday announced the Samajwadi Secular Morcha.
PTI FILE SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav with brother Shivpal, who on Friday announced the Samajwadi Secular Morcha.

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