Lucknow, Aug 16 (IANS): Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Singh Yadav chose Independence Day on Tuesday for his show of strength in home town Etawah.

Attacking his estranged nephew Akhilesh Yadav for "weakening the party", he said had Mulayam Singh Yadav not been humiliated, the party would not have received a drubbing in the state assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

At the "Shraddhanjali Yatra" under the aegis of "Mulayam Ke Log" organisation, the former state PWD Minister said that many people within the party weakened it and added that the farmers, weaker sections of the society and the marginalised had immense faith in Mulayam and were looking for guidance from him.

However, Mulayam, despite provocations, did not say a word about his son -- with whom he has fallen out after being overthrown by him as party chief on January 1 this year -- and spoke in general about contemporary politics.

He remembered the freedom fighters and said that when he was Union Defence Minister, he had given a befitting reply to Pakistan for its misadventures on the border.