UP elections: Shivpal Yadav's party offered 6 seats in SP alliance; son might contest too

Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) has been offered 6 seats as a part of the Samajwadi Party-led alliance for the UP elections, sources told Republic TV. An MLA of the Jaswantnagar Assembly constituency since 1996, the former UP Minister formed PSP-L on August 29, 2018, after leaving SP. Brushing aside initial hiccups, Akhilesh Yadav had announced an alliance between SP and PSP(L) after meeting his uncle on 16 December.

Sources revealed that the proposed seats are Gunnaur, Jaswantnagar, Bhojpur, Jasrana, Mubarakpur and Ghazipur Sadar. Interestingly, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party did not win any of these seats in the 2017 Assembly election. Sources also indicated that Shivpal Yadav's son Aditya might make his poll debut from the Jaswantnagar constituency. 

At present, he is the chairman of the UP Cooperative Federation and the director of the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited. Taking to Twitter after attending a meeting of SP and its allies, PSP(L) chief Shivpal Yadav said, "The election preparations for the upcoming Legislative Assembly polls were discussed with all the allies involved under the leadership of Samajwadi Party National President Shri Akhilesh Yadav Ji. It is the aspiration of crores of people of the state that under the leadership of Shri Akhilesh Yadav Ji, an SP-led coalition government should be formed in Uttar Pradesh". 

SP's thrust on UP elections

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, BJP had won a whopping 312 seats in the 403-member House, whereas BSP could win only 19 seats. On the other hand, the SP-Congress alliance failed to bear fruit as it could win in only 54 constituencies. While this was seen as a mandate for PM Modi as BJP had not declared any CM candidate, Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath was a surprise pick for the post. Though some BJP leaders made conflicting statements over Adityanath's future as the Chief Minister, PM Modi put rest to all speculations by lauding UP's governance model during his successive visits to the state.

Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav has embarked on a statewide tour as a part of his "Samajwadi Vijay Yatra" in a bid to stage a comeback in the state. Buoyed by the overwhelming public support during his election campaign, he has often predicted that SP will win 400 seats in the 2022 Assembly polls. While Akhilesh Yadav has ruled out any alliance with Congress and BSP, he has announced a tie-up with PSP(L), Mahan Dal, OP Rajbhar's SBSP, RLD and the Apna Dal faction of Krishna Patel. The UP election will take place in 7 phases beginning February 10 whereas the results will be declared on March 10.