Stirring up a row ahead of Samajwadi Party’s meeting on Saturday to review its performance in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and plan for the upcoming legislative council elections, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) leader Shivpal Singh Yadav said he has “not been invited, despite being a party MLA”.

SP chief and Shivpal’s nephew Akhilesh Yadav will preside over the meeting.

“I was not invited to the party meeting. I waited for two days and cancelled all my programmes for this meeting, but I wasn’t invited,” Jaswant Nagar MLA Shivpal told ANI. The PSP leader had fought the election on SP symbol, as part of the alliance.

Its newly elected MLAs and members of the legislative council will be part of the meeting to be held at the party’s headquarters in Lucknow.

In the recently-held polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party retained power in the state by winning 255 of the 403 assembly seats, while the SP won 111 seats.

After the results, Shivpal had blamed the BJP for their defeat. “Our (SP alliance) seats and vote percentage have increased in the elections. The people of the state did not defeat the SP. It was because of BJP’s dishonesty and cunningness that we lost,” he had alleged.

Earlier, this meeting was to be held on March 21, but it was rescheduled to March 26 because of the nominations for the legislative council elections, the party’s chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary had said.

The presence of all MLAs and members of the legislative council will be mandatory, sources said, adding that the SP will review the shortcomings which led to its below expectation performance in the assembly polls.

With PTI inputs

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