For Shivpal, challenging outfit he himself raised a tall order

LUCKNOW: For rebellious SP leader Shivpal Yadav, who on Wednesday announced to form Samajwadi Secular Morcha, the road ahead is strewn with challenges. Similar attempts in the past, by such formidable leaders like former CM Kalyan Singh, veteran OBC leader Beni Verma and Amar Singh, have met with failures.

All of them had revolted against their parent parties, attempted to establish themselves in their new and fledgling political outfits in the vast political landscape of Uttar Pradesh, but their efforts went down as a duds in the in the annals of the state’s political history.

In 1999, Kalyan Singh, who was popular all over the country as the Hindu Hriday Samrat ( Hindutva mascot), rebelled against the “upper caste hegemony” in the saffron BJP, described the then leaders resurrected him to make him the Rajasthan governor in 2014.

Beni’s case is no different. One time number two in SP, the towering Kurmi leader rebelled against his mentor Mualayam Singh Yadav and floated Samajwadi Kranti Dal ( SKD). It fielded more than 200 candidates in 2007 state polls, but he failed to ensure victory of his own son Rakesh Verma. Rest of the SKD candidates failed to secure their deposits.

Same has been the story of Amar Singh, known for his love-hate relationship with the SP. One-time man Friday on Mulayam, Amar, too, formed Lok Manch after prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a “tired and retired” leader and vowed the “bury the BJP 20 feet beneath the ground”.

After being dismissed from the CM’s post and then from the BJP, he floated his Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP) and contested 2002 assembly elections. Having fielded nearly 300 candidates in 403 constituencies, RKP could win just three seats — two them won by Kalyan’s son and daughter-in-law.

Despite being the most popular OBC face and being hailed as a ‘hero of Babri demolition’, Kalyan went into political oblivion himself till the new generation of BJP being sacked from SP in 2010. The manch fielded candidates in 2012 state elections. But all its candidates, including Amar himself and actress Jaya Prada, tasted defeat.

Having bitten the dust , all three leaders — Kalyan , Beni and Amar — had to return to their parent parties to get themselves rehabilitated.

Political analysts say that as Shivpal plans to chart his own course through secular morcha, he must keep it in mind that past experiences reiterate that the people generally perceive such a person as a betrayer of the party and its leadership.

For him, it would be a formidable challenge to float a new political party to challenge an outfit he himself raised along with his elder brother. Although he has called upon all sulking leaders of SP to join him, there are a very likely to cross over.