Shivpal's Announcement Of Secular Morcha- A Dhobipachad Attempt To Stop BJP

The bond between the Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav is well known.

Shivpal on Wednesday announced to float the Samajwadi Secular Morcha and gave jolts to SP president Akhilesh Yadav but Shivpal has straight away denied of quitting the party.

According to senior political commentator R. R. Jha, who is also a professor at Banaras Hindu University, it is not the first time Shivpal has talked of floating another front.

"It started in the last quarter of 2015 when Akhilesh started to sideline Shivpal and got closer to his other uncle, Professor Ram Gopal Yadav. The differences between Akhilesh and Shivpal started building from then, and Mulayam had to intervene to solve the differences and keep the family unit intact," Jha says, adding that even Gopal Das Neeraj talked to Akhilesh and Mulayam to solve the differences then.
 
Mulayam Singh Yadav had reprimanded and raised questions on the working of the government when the Samajwadi Party was in power, and it is said that it was done by the SP patriarch on the feedback given by Shivpal, which was not appreciated by the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Jha says.

"One should understand that Mulayam snubbing Akhilesh in public meetings was a clever attempt to get the sympathy of the public during the time when party leaders were actually not going to the ground. Similarly, Shivpal announcing to make a collateral front by staying within the party looks like that he is actually trying to pressurize Akhilesh for a key position in the party and also for a bigger role before the 2019 polls," he said.
    
Former journalist Ratan Mani Lal says that Shivpal announcing to bring smaller parties together should be a worrying factor for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
 
"One should note the pattern that the BJP had united all the local parties like Apna Dal, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, Mahaan Dal and others. The BJP also took the support of local community leaders in western Uttar Pradesh and the party with this step was able to form the government with majority in the state. Now Shivpal is also trying to do the same for the SP-BSP alliance before going to the 2019 polls," Lal said.
 
It may be mentioned that Shivpal recently met the rebel BJL MLA, O. P. Rajbhar and Apna Dal's president Krishna Patel. 
   
"Coming together of all the smaller parties with Shivpal Singh Yadav will turn out to be a worrying factor for the BJP as one should remember that Shivpal is an SP loyalist, and has refused to meet senior BJP leaders over the offer of joining the party as claimed by former SP leader Amar Singh. It is nothing but a dhobipachaad move by the former wrestler," Lal noted.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has asked all its officials spokespersons to avoid speaking or taking up this issue. 
 
"Only our national president is authorized to speak on such issues and we have yet not got any stand from the party. Shivpal ji is still in the party and he has not resigned yet," said SP spokesperson Abdul Hafeez Gandhi.
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 About the author: Saurabh Sharma is an independent journalist and core team member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.