Yogi ‘pendulum’ remark, cutting Shivpal Yadav security prompts Akhilesh pushback

As Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh gears up to vote in the bypolls next week, a controversy has already erupted in the state over downgrading of Shivpal Yadav’s security. On Monday, the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) chief's security was downgraded from category “Z” to category “Y”. Akhilesh Yadav - whose wife Dimple is contesting the bypoll in the Samajwadi Party home turf - and his uncle Shivpal have targeted the BJP over the move that comes amid growing proximity between the two leaders following a spell of differences earlier this year.

In a tweet, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister wrote on Monday: “Downgrading the security arrangements for respected Shivpal ji is problematic. At the same time, calling him a “pendulum” is rather indicative of changing times. It also shows that nothing is stable that one should be arrogant about.” Akhilesh Yadav was making a reference to a comment by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath amid campaigning.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister - who was in the Samajwadi Party stronghold on Monday - attacked Shivpal Yadav while campaigning in the Lok Sabha constituency; the seat was vacated following the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav in October. “His condition has become like that of a pendulum,” the UP CM was quoted as saying by news agency PTI, further adding that “a pendulum commands no respect and one should not become that in life”.

Without naming Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother, he further said: “When one moves about like a football, one man kicks from this side and the other from that side. Some people have become a football; there is a need to save oneself from becoming a football."

Adityanath was in Mainpuri to back the BJP’s candidate - Raghuraj Singh Shakya, who is contesting against Dimple Yadav.

“This was expected of the BJP. Now my workers and people will provide me security. Dimple's (Yadav) victory (in Mainpuri by-polls) and BJP candidate's loss will be even bigger,” Shivpal Yadav was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Tuesday.

But the state government is undeterred by the pushback. "Shivpal Singh Yadav was in danger from his nephew Akhilesh Yadav and SP's criminals," Uttar Pradesh's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted on Tuesday night. "Now, both of them have reconciled, so the big security threat has been averted."

After the SP patriarch’s death in October, Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav have had numerous public moments that showed that the two leaders had overcome their differences that had erupted after the February-March state elections. Following the state polls, Shivpal’s meetings with Adityanath had laid bare the apparent rifts in the Yadav family.

Amid campaigning recently, Shivpal Yadav had said: “If BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya considers me a ‘guru’ (master), then as a good ‘shishya’ (disciple) he should not have contested against my daughter-in-law. Raghuraj Singh kept me in the dark and betrayed me.”