Estranged SP leader Shivpal Yadav to float new party

Lucknow, Jan 31 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav, who has been sidelined in the party by nephew and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, on Tuesday announced that he will float a new party after the assembly elections.

Shivpal Yadav, who had a series of run-ins with Akhilesh Yadav, was addressing a rally in Jaswantnagar in Etawah district after filing his nomination for the assembly polls as a Samajwadi Party candidate.

"We will float a new political party after March 11," Shivpal, brother and close confidant of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, said.

"I am thankful (to the Samajwadi Party) that I was given a ticket, otherwise I would have contested as an independent candidate. People wanted me to contest."

Polling in various parts of Uttar Pradesh will commence on February 11 and end on March 8. Counting of votes will be done on March 11.

Attacking his nephew Akhilesh Yadav, without naming him, Shivpal explained that he was sidelined because he opposed the wrongdoings in the government.

"I had done nothing wrong. I was sidelined because I opposed those who were indulging in wrongdoings and Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) supported me. Since that day, Netaji and I are being targeted," he said.

"People whom we gave everything were targeting us. We told the Chief Minister (Akhilesh Yadav) take everything including the right to distribute tickets but let Netaji remain the National President of the party," Shivpal said.

Shivpal accused Akhilesh of removing ministers who were doing "good work".

"There are several ministers who are only vying for publicity and did nothing for public. CM could have initiated action against them, but only those ministers who were doing good work including me were sacked," Shivpal said.

Shivpal added that people close to him were denied tickets to weaken him.

"Several candidates who are true Samajwadi (socialist) are forced to contest independently as their names were eliminated from the list of those getting tickets. This was done to weaken me," he said.

The disgruntled Samajwadi Party leader added that he did a lot of work for the people when he was the Public Works Department (PWD) Minister and reduced corruption in the department despite facing several problems.

Shivpal said the top government functionary created a lot of hurdles for him in giving jobs to people in the departments under him.

"I know that my files related to fresh recruitments in my various departments were stopped deliberately," Shivpal added.