In Mulayam Yadav’s Home Turf, Brother Shivpal Still Popular

Home to 5,125 voters, the village has a medical university, a college, two stadia, an all-weather swimming pool, a government sports college and an air strip. The Agra-Lucknow Expressway is a proverbial stone’s throw away.
At first glance, Saifai looks nothing like an average Uttar Pradesh village.

For three decades, Saifai has been on India’s political map as the nerve centre of the Samajwadi Party because it is the ancestral village of the party’s first family, which has six lawmakers in Parliament and one in the assembly. But a bitter tussle for power in the Yadav family — especially between Jaswant Nagar MLA Shivpal Yadav and his nephew Akhilesh Yadav — has worried the villagers.

Locals, a majority of whom are Yadavs (the caste base of the SP) say they will stand by party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, popularly known as Netaji, in the Lok Sabha polls. Saifai is part of Mulayam’s Lok Sabha constituency of Mainpuri.

But in the assembly elections, a section of the villagers say they will opt for Chhote Netaji (Shivpal) over Bhaiyyaji (Akhilesh) because the Jaswant Nagar MLA and founder of the newly formed Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) (PSP) has been critical in the development of the village and remains popular.

“In Jaswant Nagar, even if Bhaiyajji contests against Chhotey Netaji, the latter will win,” says Anshul Yadav, 28, a farmer. The villagers say they will vote for Netaji from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat irrespective of whether he represents the SP or the PSP.

Saifai voters say Shivpal won the Jaswant Nagar seat in 2017 without the SP’s support because of the people’s enduring loyalty to the five-time MLA.

“They have all worked for Saifai, be it Netaji, Chhote Netaji, or Bhaiyaji. The family may be divided, but all the three are dear to us for what they have done for the village,” says Ankit Yadav, 22, a student of Chaudhary Charan Singh Degree college in Saifai. Some of the villagers say they don’t blame Shivpal for trying to tread a separate political path.

“What option did he have?” asks Anshul.

The feud between Akhilesh and Shivpal surfaced in 2016 and lasted for months, resulting in a series of tit-for-tat sackings and almost daily exchange of bitter remarks. Akhilesh became the national president of the Samajwadi Party in January 2017 but soon after lost the assembly polls. Akhilesh says his uncle is acting to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while Shivpal says he tried to hold the party together but failed because of his nephew.

Some villagers say they want the family to reunite but add that they would vote for Mulayam and Shivpal in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, respectively.

“They will unite. We know it. But even otherwise, it hardly makes any difference to our votes. We will vote for Shivpal in the Vidhan Sabha and Netaji for Lok Sabha. But there is no doubt that the family feud will take its toll outside these two constituencies in the Yadav belt,” said farmer Ravindra Singh.

Saifai nowadays is abuzz with political activity. A fleet of SUVs with the ‘red-yellow-green’ (Shivpal’s chosen colours) flags drive into the SS Memorial Senior Secondary School, owned by Shivpal, after school hours regularly. His son, Aditya Yadav, leads the convoy and party leaders hold closed-door discussions for hours.

Party leaders say Shivpal’s strategy is to field local heavyweights, including former MPs and MLAs, in the Yadav belt spanning Agra, Etawah, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Farrukhabad, Etah, Badaun, Kannnauj and Auraiyya.

Experts say even if Shivpal is unable to dent the SP in other regions, in his home turf, he will inflict damage.

Professor Kaushal Kishore, a professor of political science at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, said, “While Mulayam was busy with UP and national politics, Shivpal Yadav, as his Man Friday, worked all his political life in the Yadav belt and eastern UP, the region where the SP has traditionally been strong. So he is strong in these regions.” But western UP, Bundelkhand, and the Central UP areas were not Shivpal’s or the SP’s focus areas.

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