Non-Yadav OBCs, Dalits dominate Samajwadi Party’s 64-member national executive
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh’ Yadav’s balancing act shows social engineering attempt ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has done a balancing act in constituting the party’s 64-member national executive, indicating a social engineering attempt for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The new national executive indicates that without compromising much on the MY (Muslim-Yadav) factor, a traditional combination of the party, the SP wishes to expand further among the non-Yadav OBCs (other backward classes), Dalits, upper caste Hindus, and even non-Muslim minorities.
The party has named Shivpal Yadav and Swami Prasad Maurya as national general secretaries.
While Shivpal Yadav recently returned to the party fold, Swami Prasad Maurya had joined the SP after quitting ministership in the BJP government ahead of the 2022 U.P. assembly polls and has currently stirred a row with his comments on the Ramcharitmanas. The party also gave a good representation to senior leaders from other parties who joined it in the period between the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the pre-2022 UP assembly poll phase.
The new national executive announced by the party has 11 Yadavs, 10 Muslims, 25 non-Yadav OBCs, seven upper caste Hindus, six Dalits, one scheduled tribe, and one Christian member.
Among the upper caste Hindus, four are Brahmins and two are Thakurs/Kshatriyas. Among the non-Yadav OBCs, three are Kurmis and five are Jats.
The Samajwadi Party had begun working on this wider caste inclusion formula in the run-up to the 2022 U.P. assembly polls when it inducted several senior leaders of different castes from other parties. And the formula had succeeded in taking the SP’s tally of seats from 47 to 111.
The Brahmin leaders in the executive are Abhishek Mishra, Tarkeshwar Mishra, Rajkumar Mishra and Pawan Pandey.
The SP gave pride of place in the executive to some senior leaders who came from other parties. Ramachal Rajbhar, Lalji Verma, and Tribhuvan Dutta, who had joined the SP ahead of the 2022 polls are now SP national general secretaries. Harendra Malik and Salim Sherwani, who too had joined the party around that time after quitting the Congress, get the same position. Indrajeet Saroj, who joined the SP after quitting the BSP in 2017, too is now an SP national general secretary. Former Congress MP from Unnao Anu Tandon is now the SP’s national secretary. She, too, had joined ahead of the 2022 U.P. assembly polls.
While Shivpal Yadav has been made national general secretary, it will be clear in the days to come what role would he play in the party strategy, expansion, and electioneering process.
Even as some other younger Yadav family members -- Dharmendra Yadav, Akshaya Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav -- are in the national executive, Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya Yadav may figure in the state executive which the party will announce soon.
The SP national executive, apart from the national president, a national vice president and a chief national general secretary, has 15 national general secretaries, a treasurer, 20 national secretaries, 21 members, and four special invitee members.
Akhilesh had dissolved the national and state executives of the SP after the party had lost the Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls last year.
While Akhilesh Yadav is the party’s national president, Kiranmoy Nanda is the national vice-president and Ram Gopal Yadav the chief national general secretary.
Sudip Ranjan Sen from Kolkata is the national treasurer. Actor and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan and Mumbai-based Abu Asim Azmi are among the members.
