Akhilesh Yadav hints at poll adjustments with PSPL

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and his estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav may have been at daggers drawn for long but signs of thaw in their relationship are getting more evident now.


A day after SP's plea to withdraw disqualification petition against Shivpal was accepted by the Assembly Sepaker,Akhilesh on Friday dropped broad hints of a possible truce between the two ahead of the 2022 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Akhilesh said in UP elections, the party may strike an “adjustment” with “chacha” (uncle Shivpal) on Jaswantnagar seat from where Shivpal is a sitting MLA.

He also said the Samajwadi Party would not join hands with any major political party for state elections. “We may take smaller outfits along and make some adjustments at local level but will not enter in any alliance,” he said while speaking at a conference organised by a television channel. On the issue of joining hands with uncle Shivpal and getting him back into the SP fold, Akhilesh said, “He is heading a separate political outfit. ‘Us party ko adjust kar liya jayega Jaswantnagar seat par (We may have an adjustment with his party for Jaswantnagar assembly seat),” he added.

The disqualifciation petition was moved shortly after the Lok Sabha polls on grounds that Shivpal has abandoned SP and launched a separate political outfit, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party- Lohia (PSP-L). After the Speaker allowed SP to withdraw the petition on Thursday, Shivpal welcomed the move. Talking to media persons on Friday on the issue of withdrawal of anti-defection petition, leader of the opposition in state assembly and SP veteran Ram Govind Chaudhary said Shivpal was a member of the SP legislature party as on date. He refused to comment on reports of his return to the party fold. Reports of Akhilesh and Shivpal coming together started doing the rounds in October 2019 when Akhilesh announced that his doors were open for anyone and everyone who has been with SP in the past.

Days later, in response to his statement, Shivpal had also said he was ready for an alliance with SP.