Will Shivpal-Akhilesh come together again after Mulayam Singh Yadav's demise?

Saifai: Amid hopes of rapprochement in the family after Mulayam Singh Yadav's demise, Shivpal Singh Yadav, the estranged uncle of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, on Wednesday said it is not the time to take any decision about his future course of action. Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh's son, became the party president in 2017 after a feud with uncle Shivpal Yadav. The Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia president's comment came in reply to a question about whether the family would unite once again.

"This is not the time to take any decision. We are presently not in a situation to decide what I have to do and not," Shivpal Yadav told reporters in Safai.

To persistent queries on his role under the changed circumstances, he said, "Let's see what responsibility is given (to me)."

Notably, Shivpal Singh had won from the Jaswantnagar seat on an SP ticket in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. But soon after, his relationship with Akhilesh turned sour yet again after Shivpal Singh was allegedly not invited to the party's legislative meeting.

Tens of thousands of people turned up at the funeral of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav at his native village Tuesday, bidding farewell to a leader who influenced politics far beyond his home state.

pic.twitter.com/qvmC5nqa70 — Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) October 12, 2022

The SP patriarch, a three-time CM and former Defence minister, died aged 82 at a Gurugram hospital on Monday.

Aaj pehli baar laga bin suraj ke uga savera: Akhilesh after Mulayam Singh Yadav's funeral

In the first comment after lighting the funeral pyre of his father, Akhilesh summed up his feelings through a tweet as the male family members here got down to the post-cremation ritual of shaving off their heads.

"Aaj pehli baar laga bin suraj ke uga savera (For the first time it felt like morning has arrived without the sun)," Akhilesh tweeted, sharing two pictures of the place where the socialist leader was cremated.

आज पहली बार लगा…

बिन सूरज के उगा सवेरा. pic.twitter.com/XlboMo8G2V — Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) October 12, 2022

Besides Akhilesh, Shivpal Yadav, who had floated his own party after falling out with his nephew, was also among those who took part in the head shaving ritual.

Recalling his brother, Shivpal said, "Netaji had very good relations with leaders of all the parties and that was evident in the huge turnout at the cremation yesterday."

"Wherever he had been, be it Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha, he had the concern for the farmers and the deprived section of society," Shivpal Singh said, adding that he had always "served 'Netaji' and did whatever he asked me to do and never did anything without his assent.

"I had also formed the party after he told me to do so," he added.

The likely bypoll to Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which Mulayam Singh represented in the present term, would reveal about the path taken by Chacha-Bhatija (uncle-nephew).

Mulayam Singh was cremated with full state honours on Tuesday in his native village of Saifai near the place where his first wife Malti Devi was cremated.

SP leader writes to President Droupadi Murmu demanding 'Bharat Ratna' for Mulayam Singh Yadav

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader I P Singh on Wednesday demanded the departed party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav be conferred with the country's highest civilian award -- the 'Bharat Ratna'. The party spokesperson also demanded the Agra-Lucknow expressway be renamed Dhartiputra Mulayam Singh Yadav Expressway in respect of the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

In a letter to President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday, Singh said a golden chapter of socialism in the country has ended with the death of Yadav "who fought the historic battle of social justice and dedicated his life to the nation".

"He was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice as well as the defence minister once, but he always remained a grassroots leader. He was a messiah of the poor and did politics for their welfare," Singh said in his letter in Hindi on the party letterhead.

"The entire country is mourning the death of Yadav and there is a sense of despair among all. In such a situation, taking care of the sentiments of crores of his supporters and every soldier of socialist ideology, an immediate announcement should be made to confer the country's highest civilian award 'Bharat Ratna' on Yadav," he said.

Singh separately wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, requesting him to rename the Agra-Lucknow Expressway as Dhartiputra Mulayam Singh Yadav Expressway.