'Expected of BJP': Shivpal Yadav After Security Cover Downgraded from 'Z' to 'Y' Category by UP Govt

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday downgraded the security of cover of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) leader Shivpal Yadav from Z to Y category days after he mended fences with nephew Akhilesh Yadav.

The PSP chief’s security was announced to be downgraded on Monday, a few days after he had endorsed Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Dimple Yadav for the upcoming Mainpuri bypoll.

Responding to this development the MLA said his workers would provide him security now. “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,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday called the move “objectionable” and also hit out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for likening his uncle to a pendulum and a football. In a tweet in Hindi, he said “It is objectionable to reduce the security cover of Shivpal Singh Yadav. It is also to be noted that a pendulum is a symbol of movement of time and indicates the change of time for everyone. It says that there is nothing stable on which one could be proud of.”

His remarks came after UP CM Yogi Adityanath likened Shivpal to a pendulum and a football. “He has become something like a pendulum, or a football that gets kicked by both teams. We saw how last time he was insulted on stage through denial of a chair and had to sit on the arm of a chair,” Adityanath said at an election rally for poll-bound Mainpuri.

SP only recently made Shivpal its star campaigner for the Mainpuri bypoll. The development came after a long-time hatchet between Akhilesh and uncle Shivpal was buried and the they joined hands to campaign for Mainpuri as a tribute to the late Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The by-election has been necessitated following the death of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav last month.

Shivpal’s support is considered important as his Jaswantnagar assembly constituency falls in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat and he is a popular leader there.

Counting of votes will be undertaken on December 8.

(With PTI inputs)

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