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Mulayam says 2024 Lok Sabha elections the target for Samajwadi Party, will require more work hard
For the first time in seven years, the entire Yadav family of the Samajwadi Party gathered at a common Holi event in their ancestral village Saifai in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief patron Mulayam Singh Yadav said 2024 (Lok Sabha elections) was the next target for the party which would have to work hard for it.
He also acknowledged the effort made by young Samajwadi Party workers in the 2022 UP assembly elections. He said it was a party of the youth and will never become old.
Mulayam was addressing a gathering on Holi at his ancestral village Saifai in Etawah on Friday.
“The youth worked very hard for the party. That’s why the SP got good votes (in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections). Now, the target is 2024. It requires more hard work and strengthening of the party,” Mulayam said.
The SP won 111 seats and its allies together bagged another 14 seats in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh assembly election. The SP on its own had a vote share of 32.1%.
The BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh with 255 seats (273 with its allies). The BJP’s vote share was 41.3%.
It was the first time in seven years that the entire Yadav family of the SP gathered at a common Holi gathering following the political reunion of SP national president Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav. Mulayam, Akhilesh, Shivpal, Ram Gopal Yadav, and several other family members were present on the stage to celebrate Holi with the people of their ancestral village.
“You will have to work hard for 2024 (Lok Sabha elections). Subsequently, we also have to form the government in the state (the next UP assembly election is due in 2027). Get me the phone numbers of all such youth workers and other workers of the party, who had worked hard for the party in the recently concluded elections. I will speak to them. Make me meet them. It’s from among these youth that the future MLAs and MPs will come,” Mulayam said. He added that he was very pleased with the party’s performance in the recent elections.
“I am confident that these youth will take the party to newer heights,” he said.
The annual Holi gathering has been a tradition at Mulayam’s village for over the last four decades. The tradition continued in the last seven years too, albeit with a difference. Shivpal Yadav, who fell out with Akhilesh, was holding his own Holi gathering a little away from the main event during this period. This time, after the coming together of Akhilesh and Shivpal in the 2022 UP assembly polls, the common Holi camaraderie, too, returned.
The Yadavs played Holi with one another and the gathering by showering flower petals.
“Twenty quintals of rose and marigold petals were arranged from Kanpur on two trucks. The Yadav family was back in its element. Because the event this time was scaled up, it was organised at the Saifai Mahotsav pandal, instead of the courtyard of Mulayam’s residence,” said Sughar Singh Saifai, a Saifai-based journalist.
Samajwadi Party national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav sang “faag” (Holi song) on the occasion.
NEWLY ELECTED SP MLAs’ MEETING ON MARCH 26 NOW
The Samajwadi Party on Saturday announced that the meeting of all its newly-elected MLAs will now be held on March 26 instead of March 21. The party said its president Akhilesh Yadav will address the meeting.
The March 21 meeting was postponed because of the dates for the nomination of candidates for the UP legislative council (local bodies) elections.
