2019 LS polls: Estranged SP leader Shivpal Yadav to contest against nephew from Firozabad

President of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) Shivpal Singh Yadav on Saturday, January 26, said he would be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha election from Firozabad against his nephew Akshay Yadav, the incumbent MP.

Akshay is son of Shivpal's estranged cousin Ram Gopal Yadav. The former UP minister said he was forced to form his own party after being sidelined by Akhilesh Yadav, the former Chief Minister and son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of Samajwadi Party.

Shivpal took potshots at the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance forged recently and said neither he nor his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav ever considered Mayawati "behen ji" (sister).

"I did everything for Akhilesh. But it is for all to see how he treated me," said the legislator from Jaswantnagar in Etawah. The 63-year-old also said that Akhilesh Yadav cannot be trusted.

Shivpal Yadav had left the SP alleging that he was not getting his due and Mayawati had called his party BJP’s ‘Team B’. Om Prakash Rajhbhar, a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and SBSP president, has met him a couple of times.

In October 2018, the Yogi government had allotted the bungalow that was occupied by BSP chief Mayawati till last year. The spacious bungalow is located at 6, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg in Lucknow. It had raised several eyebrows. The CM had also approved for Z plus security to Shivpal Yadav.