Shivpal Yadav, the younger brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav who had warmed up to the BJP after his ouster from the Samajwadi Party, has said many “secular parties” have resolved this New Year to forge an alliance to defeat the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2022.

Shivpal, the president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), told reporters in Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday evening: “The secular parties, which believe in the same ideology of social harmony, have already started coming together. The talk and the process is on to build a big alliance so that the BJP can be thrown out of power in the Assembly elections to be held in 2022.”

Asaduddin Owaisi, Hyderabad MP and leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), had met Shivpal and Om Prakash Rajbhar, the chief of the Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party, in Lucknow separately on December 16.

Later, Rajbhar, whose SBSP was a part of the Yogi Adityanath government till May 2019, had also met Shivpal and said: “The idea is to bring on one platform the smaller parties. Even the BJP is trying to woo the smaller parties. It was in this situation that we resolved to take the lead in forming an alliance of smaller, anti-BJP parties.”

The SBSP has four MLAs in Uttar Pradesh and Shivpal is the only MLA from his party. Owaisi’s party has yet to win a seat in the state.

Mohammed Ayub, president of the Peace Party, has also expressed his wish to be a part of the proposed alliance.

“The idea is to consolidate our presence in the state’s politics and marginalise those who are doing divisive politics,” Ayub said.

Shivpal said he was not averse to bringing outfits like the Samajwadi Party onto the proposed platform but added that all the smaller parties would remain independent entities.

“Some bigger non-BJP parties including the SP want smaller parties to merge with them. The idea floated by some SP leaders of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia)’s merger with their party is impractical. I have formed my party to sustain it and will continue to maintain its independent identity,” Shivpal said.

“But the SP or any other big party can be a part of the alliance if it believes in secular politics. The talk for an alliance of the smaller parties is in the final stages and they all have the single aim of defeating the BJP,” he added.

Shivpal’s nephew and Mulayam’s son, Akhilesh Yadav, removed Shivpal from the SP in 2017. Shivpal had then got close to the BJP. The Adityanath government had allotted him a palatial bungalow and provided him Z-category security in 2018, both of which he continues to enjoy.