Akhilesh, Shivpal share dais on Holi at Saifai

Holi festivities in Saifai, the native village of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, witnessed the warring uncle and nephew, Shivpal Singh Yadav and party president Akhilesh Yadav, share the dais after a long time.
Both Shivpal and Akhilesh, involved in a bitter battle with each other in the party since 2016, attended the Holi function yesterday, with the latter also touching the feet of the former and taking his blessings.
Akhilesh, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, also restrained his and his uncle's supporters from raising slogans.
"This is the time for Holi festivities...politics should be kept out of it...such sloganeering spoils the atmosphere and creates distance...things should be changed, otherwise they will only weaken us. We need to think about the future and move ahead...I take a decision only after giving it a proper consideration and not under anyone's influence," he said.

The SP chief added that if slogans had to be raised, they should be in favour of the "cycle", the party symbol.
On the occasion, Shivpal said, "Festivals are more fun if people have love for each other in their hearts. In villages, people give importance to trivial issues that create animosity and the clever people take the advantage...people need to sit, talk and remove the misunderstandings...this will not give an opportunity to others to take advantage of the situation...people need to forget their differences on Holi."

Though SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and senior party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, a confidant of Akhilesh, were not on the dais, other members of the Yadav family, including MPs Dharmendra Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, were present.

The Yadav family celebrates Holi in Saifai every year with the SP patriarch joining family members, villagers, party workers, supporters and friends in the festivities.
Shivpal had not taken part in the Holi festivities at Saifai last year and celebrated the occasion with his supporters at his Etawah residence instead.