E-Paper
Samajwadi Party’s executive committee meeting to discuss 2022 polls
The Samajwadi Party (SP) will hold its first national executive committee meeting since 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in Lucknow on Saturday.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) will hold its first national executive committee meeting since 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in Lucknow on Saturday.
In the meeting, scheduled at party’s state headquarters here, the SP leaders will discuss the preparations for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
The members would discuss laying a roadmap for the polls even as the Yogi Adityanath government is set to complete three years in office.
The party is looking to come back to power in Uttar Pradesh through 2022 polls and the meeting is considered a crucial preparatory step towards realisation of the goal.
The party had won only 47 seats in 2017 UP Assembly elections ending its first full majority government term from 2012 to 2017.
In 2012, Samajwadi Party had won 224 seats.
Party’s national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav has already sent a letter to all the members of the committee.
The national president of the party, Akhilesh Yadav, will preside over the meeting.
The meeting is likely to formalise Akhilesh’s oft-repeated idea of not engaging with any political party for across the state pre-poll alliance but keep the options open for tie-ups with smaller parties in specific regions.
“If the party formally adopts the resolution for going it alone, then this will be the first time that the party will be contesting an election alone since Akhilesh became the national president of the party,” said an executive committee member.
Akhilesh became the party’s national president in January 2017. The party contested the 2017 UP Assembly polls in alliance with the Congress and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in partnership with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
On both the occasions, Akhilesh’s party did not get desired results out of the alliances.
The committee would also discuss the broad outlines for engaging its legislators in a long-drawn statewide campaign against the Yogi government and regular charted tours of Akhilesh. Akhilesh has already toured nearly 23 districts in the state in last three months.
After the meeting, he is likely to restart travelling to regions with elaborate engagements, including public meetings.
After the meeting, the state unit of the party, led by the state president Naresh Uttam Patel, will begin galvanising the party outfit at the district and Assembly constituency level.
“The party would be more visible to people through regular demonstration, public contact programme and above all frequent bicycle rallies. The executive committee meeting will issue directions to the party regarding this,” said an SP legislator.
