As Samajwadi Party implodes, Shivpal Yadav sings 'Kasme Vaade', a song about betrayal

NEW DELHI: He wasn't exactly fiddling while Rome burned, but a video has surfaced showing Shivpal Yadav singing and in remarkably good spirits at a private New Year's eve party on Saturday despite the upheavals in the Samajwadi Party(SP).

But, oh, the goings-on were certainly on his mind, because the video from news agency ANI shows that when the MC asked him if he had a song request, Shivpal not only requested but also sang a well-known Bollywood song about promises and betrayal. The song? 'Kasme waade pyaar wafaa sab baatein hain baaton ka kya, koi kisi ka nahi ye jhoothe, naate hain naaton ka kya'.

Sunday, the day after he sang that song, would see the SP split and Shivpal's estranged nephew, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, firmly in the driver's seat.

#WATCH: Shivpal Yadav sings 'Kasme waade pyaar wafaa sab baatein hain baaton ka kya, koi kisi ka nahi ye jhoothe, naate hain naaton ka kya' pic.twitter.com/NyXMBWnUMW

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 1, 2017

At a national convention of the SP held Sunday, Akhilesh was declared the new national president, a post that was held by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. The convention also made Mulayam, the SP's founder, the patron of the party. Shivpal, whom Mulayam had sided with throughout the internecine battle, was thus sidelined.

Akhilesh justified this move as something that's good for the party. Yesterday, he tweeted:

Sometimes to protect the ones you love you must make the right decision. What I did today was a tough decision but one that I had to take. pic.twitter.com/M5xZYEZhii

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) January 1, 2017

All of this conflict was a culmination of the war that had been brewing in the SP since September of last year. SP chief Mulayam and his brother Shivpal were ranged on one side, and Mulayam's son Akhilesh and Mulayam's cousin Ram Gopal Yadav were on the other.