With an eye on expansion, SP begins spade work for MP polls

While the party has set up its organisational structure in MP and is working on candidates’ selection, it has begun dharna-demonstration against the MP BJP government for visibility among the people of Madhya Pradesh.

LUCKNOW: In a bid to expand outside Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) aims to contest the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2023 with full strength. The party won seven seats in 2003 and one in the 2018 assembly polls in the central Indian state.

SP national president Akhilesh Yadav announced his party’s plan for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls when he visited the state in August last year. (Pic for representation)

SP national president Akhilesh Yadav announced his party’s plan for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls when he visited the state in August last year.

He will again visit the state on Friday. Akhilesh will be in Mhow, Indore, the birthplace of Dr BR Ambedkar, on the birth anniversary of the chief architect of India’s Constitution to showcase the party’s strength and ideology and woo Dalit votes.

“We will contest all the 230 seats in the state. Preparations are on. The outfit is now in place in all the 52 districts of the state,” said Ramayana Singh Patel, SP’s Madhya Pradesh state president.

Akhilesh will also hold a meeting of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the party on Friday to further discuss the election plans.

Patel said the national president would decide if the party would enter an alliance with any anti-BJP party in the state. “We will win a sizable number of seats in the election and expect that the next government in the state will get installed with SP’s support”.

While the party has set up its organisational structure in MP and is working on candidates’ selection, it has begun dharna-demonstration against the MP BJP government for visibility among the people of Madhya Pradesh. On Monday, the party had sent a delegation comprising some senior party leaders from UP along with MP office-bearers to Bhind to raise the issue of “fake encounter” of a Bhind resident Akash Gurjar by U.P. Police in September last year in Agra. The case came back into reckoning when the chief judicial magistrate in Agra ordered to register an FIR in the case.

The Samajwadi Party is a regional party of Uttar Pradesh and is looking to clinch a national party status within five years. It won a seat in Gujarat state polls in 2022 and two seats in Maharashtra polls.

The Samajwadi Party is known to have influence and strength in Bundelkhand-Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh.