SP cashes in on UP magic, opens tally with two seats

The charm of the resounding victory it had scored in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly, rubbed on to Samajwadi Party’s (SP) prospects in the Delhi civic polls, with the UP-based party opening its account in the national Capital with two seats. Faizan Haider reports.

The charm of the resounding victory it had scored in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly, rubbed on to Samajwadi Party’s (SP) prospects in the Delhi civic polls, with the UP-based party opening its account in the national Capital with two seats.

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The party’s simple strategy to focus on areas that are close to UP border and Muslim-dominated seems to have worked as the SP candidates emerged victorious in Okhla and Babarpur wards.

“We are satisfied with our performance. Apart from winning two seats, in many areas, our candidates came second. The margin of loss was as low as 1,000 on some seats. Our vote share has also increased, which gave us a lot of encouragement,” said Sanjay Singh, secretary, SP’s Delhi unit.

The SP had contested on 158 seats in Delhi, hundred seats more than the last elections. Ishrat Begum, who won from Okhla said that people have voted for change.

“SP’s win in UP helped us a lot but our hard work has also paid off,” said Begum who defeated her nearest rival by a margin of 3,000 votes.

From Babarpur (ward 260), Rekha Vashishtha, another SP candidate, came out victorious. “Both the winning candidates are from wards that are close to UP. We will now analyse the result. We are satisfied with the overall result,” Singh added.

SP focused on specific areas in southeast, east and north Delhi — near UP —such as Mayur Vihar and Pandav Nagar.