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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: With power centres demolished, rat race for tickets ends in Samajwadi Party
With the end of multiple power centres in the party, lobbying seems to be a thing of the past in the Samajwadi Party. No motorcades or processions of ticket aspirants are seen at the party headquarters this time around.
Under founder president Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) used to be the first to declare its candidates in any election but this is not the only thing that has changed about ticket distribution after Mulayam’s son Akhilesh Yadav took over the reins of the party.
In 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 2017 Vidhan Sabha polls, the party had invited applications and held interviews of those who wanted to contest elections.
However, this time, the SP has not invited applications from candidates.
With the end of multiple power centres in the party, lobbying seems to be a thing of the past in the Samajwadi Party. No motorcades or processions of ticket aspirants are seen at the party headquarters this time around.
“Earlier, ‘netaji’ (Mulayam), Shivpal Yadav, Azam Khan, Ram Gopal Yadav, Amar Singh, Mohan Singh and Janeshwar Mishra were the power centres and aspirants used to approach them for tickets. But now, the final decision will be taken by the party president. The days of rat race, hectic lobbying, parade and sloganeering by supporters of aspirants are over. We are a disciplined party now,” said an SP spokesman who did not wish to be named.
“He has already decided the candidates. Only the announcement has to be made,” he added.
After facing criticism by Mulayam that the SP was far behind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and even the alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in deciding tickets, Akhilesh had said that most of the candidates had been finalised and the list would be announced soon.
Mulayam had said that early announcement of tickets gave candidates a head start in campaigning.
A close aide of Akhilesh, however, said he differed with Mulayam’s remarks. “In most of the elections in the past, SP used to be the first in announcing candidates but the lists were never considered final. Lobbying, recommendations and afterthoughts led to multiple alterations in the lists.”
“There have been seats where candidates were changed 3-4 times which led to heartburns and factionalism and aspirants and their supporters worked against the final candidate. This time people won’t see all the drama and confusion,” said a close aide of Akhilesh.
As of now, the SP is contesting on 37 seats and is set to field one candidate on one of the three Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) seats on an RLD ticket.
Therefore, both the SP and the BSP will effectively field 38 candidates each.
RLD will contest on two seats while the alliance will not field any candidate in Rae Bareli and Amethi, the stronghold of the Congress.
Barring Gorakhpur, Firozabad, Badaun, Phulpur and Kairana, the SP cadre is not sure about the candidates on rest of the seats.
Narendra Pratap Singh Patel, who won the Phulpur LS bypoll, is set to be the party’s candidate for 2019 while the RLD MP from Kairana Tabassum Hasan is set to contest from the same seat but on a Samajwadi Party ticket.
While sitting SP MP Akshaya Yadav will be in the fray from Firozabad, Dharmendra Yadav will contest again from Badaun that he has won thrice. Praveen Kumar Nishad, who is originally from NISHAD Party, will contest Lok Sabha election from Gorakhpur on SP ticket.
“Though Akhilesh ji has said he will contest from Kannauj and ‘netaji’ from Mainpuri seat, we are not yet sure. On Kannauj, he has been changing statements and so far as ‘netaji’ is concerned, he has not said anything about his candidature even once,” said an MP in the Yadav family.
