Estranged SP leader Shivpal Yadav to float new party

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav, who has been sidelined in the party by nephew and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, on Tuesday announced that he would be floating a new party after the assembly elections.

Shivpal Yadav, who had a series of run-ins with Akhilesh Yadav, was addressing a rally in Jaswantnagar of Etawah district after filing his nomination for the assembly polls as a Samajwadi Party candidate.

"We will float a new political party after March 11," Shivpal, a close confidant of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, said.

"I am thankful (to the Samajwadi Party) that I was given a ticket. Otherwise, I would have contested as an independent candidate. People wanted me to contest."