Shivpal cuts lonely figure: Ticket CM de rahe hain

UNTIL MONDAY, he was the SP heavyweight, the one who posed the most serious challenge to his nephew’s claim to the party crown. But the morning after the Election Commission awarded the cycle poll symbol of the SP to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav cut a lonely figure, deserted by the last of his loyalists.

Standing outside the Vikramaditya Marg residence of SP patriarch and brother Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpal only had a handful of supporters with him. Ticket hopefuls who walked up to him turned back disappointed when Shivpal told them: “Ticket hum nahin, Mukhya Mantri de rahe hain” (The Chief Minister is distributing the tickets, not I).