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Eye on 2022, Akhilesh begins reconstituting SP state unit
With an eye on the 2022 UP assembly polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has started reconstituting the party’s state outfit to make it a robust unit.
With an eye on the 2022 UP assembly polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has started reconstituting the party’s state outfit to make it a robust unit.
On Thursday, the party’s state president Naresh Uttam announced presidents of 14 district units of the party, including Akhilesh’s home district Etawah and Mainpuri and Lucknow.
After SP’s poor show in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and subsequent collapse of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance, Akhilesh, in a bid to overhaul the party’s state unit, had dissolved the entire UP outfit but retained state president Naresh Uttam.
The Lok Sabha results came in May, the alliance collapsed after a month, and Akhilesh dissolved the state unit in August.
The SP had contested the Lok Sabha polls in a pre-poll alliance with the BSP. Though BSP gained in the partnership by winning ten seats against its zero in 2014 LS polls, Mayawati called off the pact with SP, blaming Akhilesh and his party for the “alliance’s failure.”
The SP could not add any number to its 2014 tally. It had won five in 2014 and five in 2019. Yet, in a way, the party suffered losses as three Yadav family members lost their seats. Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav lost Kannauj, a nephew Dharmendra Yadav lost his Badaun, and another nephew Akshaya Yadav had lost his Firozabad seat.
Just a day after the Lok Sabha results, Akhilesh had sacked -- in one stroke -- the entire panel of leaders appointed as spokespersons for TV channels and had also said that no TV channel should invite any of them for debates.
On August 23, Akhilesh dissolved the state unit of the party. Since then, there had been a vacuum in the state organisational structure. The party contested the 11-seat 2019 UP assembly by-polls with office-bearers missing. Now, the process to reinstall the state unit has begun.
On Thursday, Naresh Uttam announced a list of 14 new district presidents.
“Soon, in next few weeks, more districts will have their new presidents and other office-bearers also,” said an SP leader.
According to the first list, Jai Singh Jayant is the Lucknow district president; Deep Singh Pal (Mainpuri); Gopal Yadav (Etawah). The other districts that now have new presidents are Auriya, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Basti, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Jalaun, Bulandshahr, Unnao, Kanpur Dehat, Bareilly and Gonda.
“Now, the party is in a re-energised mode. The recent by-poll gains have boosted the morale of the cadre, and this reorganisation will help the party to delegate responsibilities and organise preparations for the 2022 polls,” said one of these new district presidents.
Samajwadi Party, in the recent UP assembly by-polls, had not only retained its Rampur seat but also won a seat each from BJP (Zaidpur) and BSP (Jalalpur).
