‘Not a member of SP, should strengthen his own party’: Akhilesh takes fresh jibe at Shivpal

Later, the SP’s official Twitter handle posted a similar statement attributing it to Akhilesh.

The remark comes days after Shivpal, one of the founder members of the SP, dared Akhilesh to expel him from the party. National president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) which he floated in 2018 amid a tussle with his nephew, Shivpal formed an alliance with Akhilesh in the run-up to the Assembly elections and contested from the Jaswant Nagar constituency on SP symbol. He won the seat.

“शिवपाल जी अपनी पार्टी के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष हैं,वो अपने दल को मज़बूत करें।”

– श्री अखिलेश यादव जी, झांसी। pic.twitter.com/hhkA1rx9pz

— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) May 5, 2022

But after the Assembly polls, Shivpal has regularly been dropping hints of his growing alienation from the SP and inclination towards the BJP. He started following Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP’s former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma on Twitter. He had also met Adityanth at his official residence in Lucknow after taking oath in the Legislative Assembly.

Even a few days back, he took to Twitter to take an indirect jibe at the SP president, saying he “compromised on his self-respect to satisfy him but got only pain in return”. “We taught him how to walk and he went on trampling us,” Shivpal said in the tweet without naming anyone.

He had also criticised the SP leadership for not inviting him to the legislature party meeting in which Akhilesh was elected the party leader last month.

Akhilesh had later invited Shivpal in a separate meeting of his alliance partners — Om Prakash Rajbhar and Pallavi Patel— for a meeting at the SP office on March 29, but Shivpal did not turn up.

Akhilesh spoke to the media in Jhansi on Thursday after visiting Lalitpur district where he met the family of a rape victim. He said CM Adityanth should meet the victim’s family when he visits Bundelkhand next time and demanded a financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh for them.

On the state government’s action of demolishing houses of “criminals”, Akhilesh said that the BJP government was using bulldozers with malafide intention on the basis of caste and religion.

The SP tweeted quoting Akhilesh, “The bulldozer rolls if members of a particular caste or religion do something. But nothing happens if BJP people encroach upon land.”

“Most custodial deaths in the country were happening in UP and the police were committing atrocities on people. Police stations have become hubs of extortion and anarchy,” he said.