Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) founder Shivpal Yadav said members of the mafia should not be taken into the Samajwadi Party and claimed that when he was president of the Akhilesh Yadav-led outfit, such people were never allowed entry.
Shivpal Yadav had quit the SP after differences with his nephew Akhilesh Yadav and formed his own party.
"The mafia never came to the Samajwadi Party (SP). Mafias should not be taken. I had also not taken any. I was the state president (of the SP) and no mafia came to us. We never took Mukhtar Ansari," Shivpal Yadav told reporters here on Wednesday evening.
He was asked about don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's brother Sigbatullah Ansari joining the SP recently.
"I took Sigbatullah Ansari and Afzal Ansari in the SP but later had to leave the SP," he said in an reference to Akhilesh Yadav, who was against their joining the party in 2016.
The BJP has attacked Akhilesh Yadav for taking Mukhtar Ansari's brother into his party, saying that the SP cannot run without the help of mafias.
Asked whether he would return to the SP, Shivpal Yadav said, "If I get due honour, I would consider returning to the Samajwadi family."
He alleged that corruption has increased five times in the state under the present BJP regime.
Published 02 September 2021, 10:48 IST