Not my disciple, says Shivpal on BJP nominee

KANPUR: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) leader Shivpal Yadav on Monday took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said the ruling party’s nominee in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll was not his disciple.

The remark was an apparent reference to the BJP’s Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll candidate Raghuraj Shakya. He also said the dreams of netaji (Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav), who passed away on October 10, will be fulfilled by (SP’s Mainpuri candidate) Dimple Yadav and him with the support of Akhilesh Yadav.

“A true tribute to ‘ Netaji’ (Mulayam Singh Yadav) will be a record victory for Dimple Yadav,” the PSP-L leader said at a big show of strength in his assembly constituency Jaswant Nagar where SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and party national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav were present as the joint campaign intensified.

“Make my bahu (daughter-inlaw) victorious by a much bigger margin than mine,” he said.

He was canvassing for SP candidate Dimple Yadav.

Without naming Shakya, Shivpal said a person is “roaming among you and seeking vote... He is saying that he is my ‘shishya’. Leave being disciple, he is not even my ‘chela’. Had he been so, he would not have left clandestinely. He is an overambitious and opportunist person,” Shivpal Yadav said.

“Had he been my disciple he would have gone to BJP (after) telling me. He went covertly. Such a person is not considered as chela,” he said.

Though located in Etawah district, Jaswant Nagar is an assembly segment of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.

Shakya has been pitted against Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll necessitated by the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Last week, the BJP candidate said Shivpal Singh Yadav is his “political guru” and he will seek his blessings.