Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav surprised political circles in Lucknow by sharing the dais with his brother – SP rebel and Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM) leader – Shivpal Yadav on Friday at the Lohia Trust office.

Shivpal organised an event at the trust office to pay tributes to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia on the socialist leader’s death anniversary. Last month, Shivpal launched the SSM to protect his “honour” and not to seek any post in the Samajwadi Party.

While addressing the gathering, Mulayam reached out to his brother saying, “Injustice must always be opposed. If a brother does injustice to a younger brother than that must also be opposed. Such were the thoughts and philosophies of Dr Lohia and I agree with this. Wherever there is an instance of injustice, be it a family, a village, a city, a voice must be raised against it. Lohia always sided with justice and always opposed injustice.”

Mulayam had visited the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow twice recently and even shared the stage with his son and party president Akhilesh Yadav in Delhi at Jantar Mantar at the end of a cycle rally by the party in New Delhi last month, but this is the first time the SP founder came to any public event with Shivpal since the former number two in the party had announced SSM on August 29.

While Lohia had been among SP’s icon, Shivpal has been projecting Lohia as his SSM’s icon too.

Shivpal, who has been sidelined in the party since Akhilesh took over the party leadership in 2016 and was re-elected for another five years in October 2017, touched Mulayam’s feet and the two were seen walking hand in hand at the event before Mulayam paid floral tributes to Lohia.

Shivpal Yadav said: “Netaji’s (Mulayam’s) blessings were with us, they are and will be with us. In politics I follow Netaji’s ideals. If he with us then following the philosophies of Dr Lohia we will bring a revolution. We will bring in change in the state and the country.”

First Published: Oct 12, 2018 14:07 IST