JOIN USAkhilesh Yadav signals truce with Shivpal ahead of UP polls
In an apparent bid to prevent a division within his party's core vote bank, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday signalled truce with his estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav and said that he had no problems in allying with the latter's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
''We will have an electoral alliance with PSP....Shivpalji will be given due respect,'' Akhilesh told reporters at Saifai, his native village in UP's Etawah district, about 300 kilometres from here.
Akhilesh, whose party has already announced an alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Suehldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), said that seat-sharing talks would be held with the PSP at the appropriate time.
The SP supremo, who has ruled out an alliance with the Congress and the BSP, said that the people of the state were fed up with the BJP government and had decided to oust the saffron party in the forthcoming assembly polls.
''An alliance with Shivpal will not only strengthen the party but will also not provide an opportunity to the BJP to take advantage of the family feud in the elections,'' said a senior SP leader while speaking to DH here.
Shivpal, who was one of the founders of the SP, had played an important role in strengthening the party at the grass-root level, party leaders said.
Although Shivpal's party could not win any seat in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it certainly affected SP's prospects on at least four to six seats.
Shivpal, who had contested against Akshay Yadav, his nephew, from the Ferozabad LS seat, ensured the defeat of the latter by bagging around one lakh votes. Akshay's margin of defeat was less than one lakh. Similarly, he also played spoilsport at Kannauj, Etawah and some other seats.
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