LUCKNOW: Miffed over not being invited to the March 26 meeting of the Samajwadi Party MLAs at party headquarters in Lucknow, Shivpal Yadav stayed away from the meeting of SP's alliance partners as well held on Tuesday evening. Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (K) also stayted away from the meeting.
Shivpal's conspicuous absence from the meeting has left political observers wondering about his next political move. There were unconfirmed reports that Shivpal was in Delhi till Monday evening and had reached Etawah on Tuesday morning. He stayed away from the media till late on Tuesday evening.
Speculations were rife that Shivpal, who was heading the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) (PSP-L) as its national president and had contested the 2022 assembly polls on SP ticket, may abandon the SP in the days to come. However, the only catch is that taking such a drastic decision could well mean that Shivpal may have to lose his assembly seat as well. It may be mentioned here that Shivpal is yet to take oath as an MLA.
While Shivpal and Pallavi Patel stayed away from the meeting, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar along with his MLAs and Rajpal Baliyan of the Rashtriya Lok Dal along with a host of fellow RLD MLAs attended the meeting. RLD chief Jayant had already held a meeting with Akhilesh during his Lucknow visit on Saturday.
Initially, the SP had scheduled the meeting with allies for March 28, but the event had to be called off after the government decided to hold the swearing in of the newly elected MLAs on the date. On Tuesday morning the SP chief sent a formal letter addressed to Shivpal, Rajbhar, Pallavi Patel and Baliyan inviting them for a meeting with alliance partners at party headquarters at 5 pm.
