Amid growing bonhomie between Akhilesh, Shivpal Yadav ahead of bypolls, AIMIM has reminder

Ahead of the Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri, as Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party chief Shivpal Singh Yadav joins hands with his nephew, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, he was thrown a reminder at by AIMIM on Tuesday.

Shaukat Ali, a leader from the Asaduddin Owaisi-led Party, drew a parallel between the honour and respect received by Shivpal Singh from Akhilesh at the time of the assembly elections, and now, ahead of the bypolls. Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh is SP's candidate for Mainpuri, bypolls where have been necessitated due to the demise of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav. 

"The respect that Shivpal Singh Yadav ji is getting today, the same respect was received in assembly elections for some time, I hope that mistake will not happen again after the Mainpuri by-election Akhilesh Yadav Ji," Ali wrote in a post on Twitter. 

Shivpal Singh's role in the election is important as his assembly constituency Jaswantnagar comes under the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency. Shivpal has a close relationship with the people of Mainpuri and used to go as Mulayam's representative in various programs held in the area when the late SP patriarch was unavailable. 

In an event organised to campaign for Dimple, Akhilesh touched the feet of Shivpal, who later said, "Whenever I used to come here and go to any corner of Jaswantnagar, people used to say only one thing that we can defeat BJP only if we unite, so today we have become united."

Fallout of Akhilesh & Shivpal Singh Yadav

Shivpal Singh and Akhilesh Yadav had come together during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections in March to take on the BJP, with the former contesting the Jaswantnagar seat on the bicycle symbol and even winning it. However, post the election the relationship saw a dip once again when Akhilesh did not invite his uncle Shivpal to the meeting of the newly-elected SP MLAs.

Thereafter, Shivpal became vocal in his criticism of Akhilesh, blaming his 'lack of political maturity' for many allies distancing from SP. Even when Akhilesh took the decision of supporting Yashwant Sinha against Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential elections, Shivpal wrote an open letter to his nephew and reminded him that the joint opposition candidate was the same person who disrespected his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. Thereafter, on multiple occasions, he asked his nephew to reconsider his decision. 

Amid this, Shivpal Singh was seen attending a dinner hosted by UP CM Yogi Adityanath in honour of Droupadi Murmu in Lucknow, after which the PSPL confirmed their support for the NDA's candidate. Miffed by this, the nephew had written a letter to his uncle, saying, "Respected Shivpal Singh Yadav Ji, if you think you will get more respect then you are free to go there."