In Janata Dal unity bid, Nitish steps in to try bring divided Mulayam family, Chautalas together

Nitish was in Saifai village in Etawah last week to pay tribute to the SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, who passed away earlier this month. The sources said he took the opportunity to speak together with Mulayam’s younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav and their cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, the SP secretary-general and Rajya Sabha MP, and asked them to unite. Mulayam’s son and SP national president Akhilesh Yadav was not present at the discussion.

Sources said when Nitish raised the topic with Ram Gopal, the latter asked him to speak with Shivpal first. Shivpal responded by saying he was always in favour of unity, and would follow whatever he’s asked to do. “But Shivpal insisted that as an elder brother and senior leader, Ram Gopal should take up the reunification initiative,” said a source who was present at the meeting, adding that Shivpal also mentioned that he had not gone against the SP in the 2022 assembly elections.

JD(U) sources said Nitish had also raised the issue of family unity with INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala at a meeting a few weeks ago, when he had said that if the latter’s family could be united, BJP could be defeated in Haryana. “Nitish told the same thing to (Om Prakash’s grandson) Dushyant Chautala and asked him to reunite with the family,” a source said.

About these initiatives by Nitish, a JD(U) leader said, “Nitish Kumar is working to end the internal contradictions, before developing a lager unity and bigger front. He started it from Bihar, where he tied-up with RJD and developed unity at the ground level.”

JD(U) national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said, “Nitish Kumarji had tried to reunion the Janata Dal parivar earlier in 2015, when he had accepted the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Now that Mulayamji is no more, SP has to get itself a new perspective to move ahead in a collective and coordinated fashion.”

“If the families unite in UP and Haryana, BJP can be given a good fight in four or five states. The Janata Dal parivar should come together, and before that, intra-family contradictions should be resolved. Divisions within the families don’t send a good message,” Tyagi said.

“Mutual coordination is our agenda now. But before that, what is important is family unity. Nitish Kumar is making efforts towards that, and success will be achieved soon. There are positive signs,” he said, adding, “Nitish says a larger unity will be possible only when our own houses are in order.”

Sources said SP and JD(U) had earlier held a round of talks on contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in UP together.

Six years ago, the SP split into two camps due to conflicting ambitions of members of the Yadav family. While Akhilesh inherited the SP, Shivpal launched the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP)-Lohia. They joined hands to contest the 2022 assembly polls, though Akhilesh offered PSP only one seat—Jaswantnagar—that his uncle Shivpal himself contested and won, that too on the SP symbol. But soon after the polls, their rift resurfaced, and they again parted ways. However, after Mulayam’s death, the entire Yadav family, including Akhilesh, Ram Gopal and Shivpal, were seen together performing the rituals and meeting political leaders who visited Saifai to pay tributes to Mulayam.