Mulayam to head new, secular front: Shivpal

Fissures in the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Friday resurfaced with senior leader Shivpal Yadav declaring that his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav will head a secular front to be formed by him.

Shivpal, who retained the Jaswantnagar seat in the just-concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, had recently given an ultimatum that a "secular front" would be formed if Akhilesh Yadav did not hand over the reins of the SP back to his father Mulayam within three months.

"For social justice, the Samajwadi Secular Morcha will be formed and netaji (Mulayam) will be its national president," he told reporters in Etawah, the bastion of the Yadav clan. Within hours of the announcement, Akhilesh said he came to know about it via media.

"I came to know about it through the media. If such a

front is formed, it is good for the country," the SP national president said, while evading a direct reply when asked by reporters to comment on the development at the party office here.

Shivpal, the warring uncle of Akhilesh, made the announcement of Mulayam heading the secular front after a meeting with the SP patriarch at a relative's house in Etawah this morning.

The two leaders held discussions on forming the new front. Shivpal, however, did not explain what the new front's future course of action would be -- whether it would contest elections against the SP or strengthen it by bringing the socialists under one roof.

The senior SP leader had been mulling to launch a campaign to bring the 'samajwadis' (socialists) on a single platform.

"Akhilesh had promised to hand over the party's reins to netaji. He should do that now and all of us will strengthen the SP. I had given him three months' time. If he fails to hand over the charge of the party to netaji by then, I will form a new secular front," he had said on Wednesday.

The SP had witnessed a bitter feud between uncle Shivpal and nephew Akhilesh in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.