Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will launch his party’s campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a public meeting in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
The public meeting at Maholi will be Akhilesh’s first engagement after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ousted the SP with a stupendous show in the country’s politically important state early last year.
“With this, Akhilesh will launch his 2019 campaign,” a party leader said.
The SP is desperately trying to galvanise its cadre and make the organisation fighting fit before the general elections after being decimated by the saffron party in last year’s assembly elections.
For his part, Akhilesh has been lying low since the defeat.
On Monday, the SP chief said he would like to contest the 2019 polls from Kannauj and that his father Mulayam Singh Yadav will fight from Mainpuri.
The 2019 polls are crucial for the SP and the BSP, both of which are struggling to keep their cadre intact. The revival of the two parties, especially the BSP, ahead of the 2022 UP elections largely depends on their performance in the next Lok Sabha polls.
{{/usCountry}}The 2019 polls are crucial for the SP and the BSP, both of which are struggling to keep their cadre intact. The revival of the two parties, especially the BSP, ahead of the 2022 UP elections largely depends on their performance in the next Lok Sabha polls.
{{/usCountry}}A large part of their support base had shifted to the BJP in both the 2014 parliamentary and 2017 state elections.
The BJP won 312 of the 403 seats and the SP managed to bag 47 in the 2017 assembly elections. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won just 19 seats and the Congress could not cross the double-digit with seven seats.
The landslide victory was a repeat of the BJP’s performance in 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which it won 71 of the total 80 seats.
The BJP is already in the election mode with its leaders insisting that the party will once again sweep the Lok Sabha polls. Last week, the ruling party reviewed its preparedness for the 2019 polls.
The BSP is also giving a final shape to its strategy and the Congress, as usual, appears to be going at the laggard pace.