Mulayam Singh Yadav to campaign for two political parties

Samjawadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav earned the unique distinction of being a star campaigner of two political parties which have fielded candidates against each other. Besides being the star campaigner of Samajwadi Party, the Lok Dal led by Sunil Singh has also named Yadav as a star campaigner of the party.

Lok Dal president Sunil Singh said that he has taken permission from Mulayam Singh Yadav to include his name in the star campaigners list. He said Mulayam Singh has even confirmed that he would campaign for Lok Dal candidates.Samajwadi Party however declined to comment on the announcement made by Lok Dal chief as the party is a rival of the SP in Assembly elections. 

Many dissidents of the SP including sitting MLAs on being denied tickets by the SP have found refuge in Lok Dal and were rewarded with tickets. The symbol `farmer ploughing field’ also matches with the Samajwadi profile of dissidents.

On Friday last, Mulayam Singh announced that he would campaign for select candidates from February 9. He said he would first go to Etawah to campaign for his brother Shivpal Yadav, who is seeking re-election from Jaswant nagar seat of the district



for a record fifth term. 

The SP patriarch said he would consider campaigning in other seats later. Mulayam is likely to campaign for senior SP leader Azam Khan seeking re-election from Ramopur and his son Abdullah Azam, who is debuting in electoral politics from Swar Tanda seat of Rampur district. 

Mulayam is also likely to campaign for his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, also making her debut in politics from Lucknow Cantonment segment.The SP ideologue had earlier termed the alliance of the SP with Congress as `absolutely unnecessary’ and announced that he would not campaign for the party. Later, he even asked his supporters to defeat Congress candidates by filing papers against them.

SP sources said that the party has no information whether Mulayam Singh will campaign for its candidates.On Friday, SP president Akhilesh Yadav indicated in Agra that it was his earnest desire that Mulayam Singh campaign for the Samajwadi Party candidates.

“The SP was established by `Netaji’, it is his party. The party has completed 25 years of existence and Netaji would also see to it that it completes another 25 years,’’ said Akhilesh.