Akhilesh Yadav, who has said he is willing to make any sacrifice in seat adjustment with BSP to dislodge BJP from the Centre, has to consider the damage his uncle may cause to the prospects of opposition parties in putting up a joint fight against the BJP.

Shivpal Yadav's links with BJP were exposed by controversial MP Amar Singh, who recently disclosed that he had fixed up meeting with senior leaders of BJP. Amar Singh said despite his efforts, Shivpal failed to reach for the appointment. But he had several meetings with UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Shivpal publicly praised the working of the Yogi Adityanath government.

It is believed that Shivpal deliberately named his outfit as Samajwadi Secular Morcha to cut into the secular support of Akhilesh Yadav. Moreover, he is also working to carry all the disgruntled elements in Samajwadi Party with him from all over the state.

Significantly, Shivpal refused to heed to the advise of his elder brother and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, who openly supported his son Akhilesh Yadav. Although he has been insisting that he will always be with his elder brother, he has now said he would go ahead with his morcha.

In order to show his strength, Shivpal organised the first meeting of his morcha at Budhana in Muzaffarnagar. The meeting was also attended by prominent Congress leader-turned sant Acharya Pramod Krishnan.

Addressing the meeting in the sensitive district, which had witnessed large scale communal riots in 2013, Shivpal Yadav announced that he was fed up of being marginalised in the party for over a year. He also declared that no alliance was possible in UP without him. He said that he was in touch with smaller parties to bring them into his morcha.

Shivpal Yadav seems to have decided that he would go to any extent to damage the chances of Akhilesh Yadav and his possible alliance with BSP, RLD and Congress. He has already announced his intention to field candidates for all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP. Interestingly, Mulayam Singh Yadav has made it clear that he would contest from Mainpuri and Akhilesh from Kannauj.

It is worth noting that the tussle between Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav had erupted on to the streets before the 2017 assembly elections and this had hurt the Samajwadi Party in the elections. The party paid such a heavy price for the family feud that the Samajwadi Party was not only removed from power but restricted to less than 50 seats despite an alliance with Congress.

Reacting to the formation of Samajwadi Secular Morcha, Akhilesh Yadav said that BJP was behind the whole operation to target the alliance. (IPA Service)