LUCKNOW: Amid speculations of strained ties with his nephew and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL) chief Shivpal Yadav met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at his official residence on Wednesday evening.
Shivpal’s meeting with the CM lasted 30 minutes after which UP BJP president and Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh met the CM.
Reports are doing the rounds that Shivpal is also in touch with the central leadership of the BJP.
Earlier, Shivpal was in Delhi for two days till Tuesday after which he reached Etawah. Leaders in the Shivpal camp confirmed that he was on a two-day visit to Delhi.
Sources claimed that Shivpal met senior BJP leaders in Delhi. However, there is no official word in this connection.
According to sources, BJP might support Shivpal’s candidature from Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat or help him secure a berth in Rajya Sabha.
Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat has fallen vacant after Akhilesh decided to resign as MP to retain Karhal assembly seat.
Akhilesh had forged an alliance with Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD in west UP and OP Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) in the east. He had also called truce with his uncle Shivpal Yadav and gave him a ticket from Jaswantnagar.
However, reports surfaced that all was not well between the uncle-nephew duo as Shivpal was expecting at least six seats for his party leaders including his son Aditya Yadav, Shiv Kumar Beria and Sadaf Fatima.
However, since the truce came late, Shivpal was left with no choice but to contest election on an SP ticket.
Beria joined the BJP while Sadaf Fatima switched over to the BSP and contested from Zahoorabad assembly seat.
The latest trigger came when Shivpal was not invited to the SP MLAs’ meeting. Though the SP leaders defended the move saying that Shivpal would be invited for the meeting of alliance partners, the rift became evident when Shivpal skipped the meet.
