Senior Samajwadi Party Shivpal Yadav has said that he was quitting the Samajwadi Party and forming his own party called the 'Samajwadi Secular Morcha', which would be headed by former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Shivpal told ANI that the chief of his new party would be his brother Mulayam. "Mulayam will head secular front to be formed to ensure social justice," Shivpal said.
"Netaji ko unka sammaan vapas dilane, aur Samajawadion ko ek saath laane ke liye is morche ka jald hi ailaan hoga (In order to restore Netaji's lost honour and bring all Samajwadis together, the new morcha will be announced soon in Lucknow)," Shivpal told the news agency.
Shivpal will soon be meeting state and national-level leaders over the formation of the new party, which would also include minorities, farmers and the youth. He had in April requested former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to let his father Mulayam become the party chief again and unite the party as well as the family both of which have been witnessing serious rifts over the past several months.
"He should unite the whole family and the party. He should fulfil what he had said. He should fulfil his moral duty. Akhilesh should now embrace Mulayam Singh as the national chief of the party again," Shivpal had said.
The news comes after the Samajwadi Party's crushing defeat in the recently Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh for which the party had tied up with the Congress. Akhilesh, who was not on good terms with Shivpal, was the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance.
The defeat in the Assembly polls was also blamed on the long-standing rift within the Yadav family with Akhilesh taking control of the party, much against the wishes of his father Mulayam and uncle Shivpal.
Mulayam had put the blame on Akhilesh for the party's defeat in the Assembly polls and said that his son had insulted him and that the voters had understood that "one who is not loyal to his father, cannot be loyal to anyone."
"I was badly insulted, which I had never faced in my life. Nevertheless, I tolerated it. No leader of any party in India had made his son a chief minister during his lifetime, but I made Akhilesh the chief minister of UP," Mulayam had said in April.
