The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Shivpal to float new party after results
SAMAJWADI PARTY (SP) rebel Shivpal Yadav on Tuesday announced that he will float a party after Uttar Pradesh election results are announced on March 11.
Shivpal said he will campaign for party candidates denied ticket by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. “After the results are announced on March 11... you win now and form the government. You form the government, we will set up a new party after March 11,” Shivpal said at a rally after filing his nomination from Jaswant Nagar in Etawah district on an SP ticket.
“Where will my people go? Where will people who worked hard go now? Everyone has the right to contest polls... Whoever has managed to get a ticket are contesting,” he said.
“After February 19 (when third-phase elections are held in 69 constituencies, including Jaswant Nagar), if my supporters who have not got tickets call me, I would think (about campaigning for them),” Shivpal said.
Taking on the Sp-congress alliance, the four-time MLA from Jaswant Nagar said: “Those who were named candidates 10 months ago, their tickets have been cancelled .... You tell me, will Congress nominees win from there?” He claimed that surveys showed that the Congress will win only four seats in the state.
Asserting that SP’S rise was due to Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpal said that many people say that whatever they have achieved is due to Mulayam. “Netaji made them (leaders in Akhilesh camp) prosper (but) they are humiliating him today.”
Shivpal told the crowd that Akhilesh “obliged” him to contest under the SP banner by giving him the ticket. Otherwise, he asserted, he would have contested as an Independent. Clarifying his allegiance, Shivpal said, “I had told the CM that everything is acceptable but not Netaji’s humiliation... I will bebehindnetajitillmylastbreath.”
On his absence from the party’s star campaigner list, Shivpal said, “I am contesting and campaigning for myself.”
Reactingtoshivpal’sstatement, Spspokespersonsunilsinghyadav said, “Now, there will be no effect of anyone’s statement on people. Theallianceofspandcongresswill give a new direction to not only the state but the country. Everyone is free to make a new party whenever one wants.”