Shivpal likely to skip festivities

Kanpur: After parting ways with Samajwadi Party (SP), Shivpal Yadav may now skip the traditional Holi festivities in Saifai, Etawah, the native village of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, said party sources.
Till the last Holi, the Yadav clan had celebrated Holi together with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav publicly seeking blessings of his estranged uncle Shivapal, who has since launched his own political outfit — Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L).

The Yadav clan celebrates Holi in Saifai every year with Mulayam and other senior family members, including Shivpal, Akhilesh, Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav and Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, enjoying the festivities with the villagers, party workers, supporters and friends.

The celebrities are held in the lawns of Mulayam’s residence amid showers of flower petals and ‘abeer-gulal’.

Shivpal and Akhilesh, who were involved in a bitter battle with each other in the party since 2016, had shared the dais after a long time in 2018 Holi in Saifai, said SP sources.

Shivpal, however, had not taken part in the Holi festivities at Saifai in 2017 and celebrated the occasion with his supporters at his Etawah residence instead.

PSP-L spokesperson Deepak Mishra said, “Till now there is no plan in place that our national president will go to Safai for the Holi get-together because of his hectic schedule of meetings with senior party leaders to finalise the tickets of candidates.”

PSP-L leaders claimed that earlier there have been instances when SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had missed the Holi celebrations in Safai due to political engagements and it would be unfair to hold Shivpal responsible for breaking any kind of tradition in case he is unable to make it due to prior commitments.