Lucknow: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav announced that he will first campaign for his brother Shivpal Yadav and then for son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
According to reports, Mulayam will start my campaign for Shivpal from February 9 from Jaswantnagar.
In a shock move, Shivpal Yadav, who has apparently left stung after Election Commission's decision to allot the bicycle symbol in Akhilesh's favour, had on January 31 announced that he would form a new political party after March 11, the day election results of five states would be declared.
Shivpal, a four-time MLA from Jaswantnagar, is a nominee from the same seat.
"I will campaign for Akhilesh later," ANI quoted Mulayam Singh as saying.
Earlier, Mulayam had expressed his displeasure over Congress-SP alliance and had ruled out to campaign for his son Akhilesh Yadav in the run up to the state Assembly elections.
Shivpal, who filed his nomination papers on the Samajwadi Party's ticket from Jaswantnagar, said that he would be campaigning for those denied tickets by Akhilesh.
Shivpal also highlighted the work done by his ministry. "We ran the government for five years, was my ministry's performance inferior to others," he said.
Hours after the news of alliance between Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party newly elected president Akhilesh Yadav came up, Mulayam claimed that the party could win the elections on its own and that the "SP-Congress alliance wasn't needed".
He also blamed Akhilesh for agreeing to concede at least 105 out of total 403 seats to the Congress as part of the seat-sharing agreement.
Akhilesh had too expressed his hopes that his father Mulayam would campaign for the alliance.
"I am sure Mulayam Singh Yadav will campaign for us," he told media.
Uttar Pradesh will go to assembly elections on February 11 and counting of votes will begin on March 11.
