Shivpal Yadav to back BJP if no clear winner in UP?

New Delhi: Revenge tastes better when it’s served cold — at least, Shivpal Yadav, the angry, slighted uncle of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, seems to think so.

Ousted by his nephew from the post of state unit chief of the Samajwadi Party, Shivpal Yadav has reportedly sent feelers to the BJP, that in the event of a hung Assembly he and his supporters are willing to throw their weight behind the BJP.

Another sulking and seething SP leader, Amar Singh, is reportedly aiding and abetting Shivpal Yadav’s plan, sources said.

The disgruntled Shivpal Yadav faction has already declared that he might float a separate party after election results are announced. He has also kept the option of joining the Lok Dal open, with Mulayam Singh Yadav himself campaigning for several Lok Dal candidates.

Sources said that close to 40 Shivpal Yadav loyalists who were denied tickets by Akhilesh Yadav are contesting on Lok Dal tickets and this will strengthen the Mulayam-Shivpal duo’s hand in case of a hung Assembly.

The channels were opened midway through the polls, after political pundits felt that Uttar Pradesh might be staring at a hung Assembly. In such a scenario, the party which emerges as the single largest will try to prop its own government with the support of other parties or fragments.

The key to the communication channel is reportedly SP’s Rajya Sabha member, Amar Singh who recently praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he was ready to join the BJP. “I have not yet decided about joining BJP, but I am also not saying that I don’t have plans (to join BJP),” he told a TV channel.  

“PM Modi may be an RSS pracharak, but the fact is that he won elections by a huge majority. I can say one thing about PM Modi — he has no family and no son and his politics is not that of dynasty. Even Mulayam Singh had no political viraasat (dynasty) for that matter. Both, Modi and Mulayam, are similar in that respect, “ Amar Singh, who had targeted the Prime Minister after demonetisation, said in a changed tone.

Amar Singh, who was seen to be one of the main problems between the father and son, was expelled from the party by Akhilesh Yadav during the party’s recently held national convention. When asked whether he was with Modi or Mulayam, Amar Singh replied: “I shall always remain with the sidelined Mulayam all my life.”

Sources said that Shivpal Yadav is “relying heavily” on Amar Singh to “strike a deal” with the BJP if UP elections throw up a hung Assembly.