E-Paper
Why is SP keen on contesting MP assembly elections
Preparing to spread its wings in other Hindi-belt states like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh which are likely to go to polls later this year, the Samajwadi Party is especially keen on Madhya Pradesh, party leaders said.
Preparing to spread its wings in other Hindi-belt states like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh which are likely to go to polls later this year, the Samajwadi Party is especially keen on Madhya Pradesh, party leaders said.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav who has announced that his party will contest all the 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh will tour the state on July 19 and 20 to oversee poll preparations.
Earlier on June 12, he held a meeting of the office-bearers of Madhya Pradesh unit in Lucknow.
As the SP is primarily focusing on Madhya Pradesh, Akhilesh held public meetings in Siddhi, Satna and Chhattarpur districts between May 18 and 20.
The party is selecting candidates for the three states and has sent its observers to prepare for the elections.
“The party is keen on MP as it is the state where it has been winning assembly seats since the party’s inception in 1992. We opened our account in MP assembly election in 1993 by-poll winning one seat. Then we won four, seven, and one seat in 1998, 2003, and 2008 assembly elections respectively,” Madhya Pradesh unit president of the party Gauri Yadav, 65, said.
“Samajwadi Party has been a regional party since its inception in 1992. It is looking forward to become a national party sooner or later and Hindi belt will be the best bet to start with,” an associate of Akhilesh Yadav said.
In a statement in January this year, Akhilesh had said that he had national ambitions for the party.
“People in MP are not only angry with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but are also unhappy with the Congress. Under these circumstances, we should prepare well for the polls and while doing so we should also strengthen the party across the state at booth level,” Akhilesh had told the cadre in June.
During his visit to MP in May, Akhilesh said in a press conference in Chhattarpur that if the opposition parties wanted to take the SP onboard, it should be on decent terms.
“If someone tells us we do not have a presence here and we should settle for less, then we too can tell them they have no presence in UP,” he had said.
“If the SP does not find suitable alliance terms, it will contest on all 230 seats in MP and all 90 seats in Chhattisgarh. We are not yet clear about Rajasthan,” said a party leader familiar with the developments in the backdrop of talks between the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party for a tie-up in Madhya Pradesh.
The party’s best performance outside UP was in MP in 2003 when it won seven seats out of 161 seats that the party had contested then. In 2013 MP polls, when the party was in power in UP but also going through inner turmoil, it drew a blank.
In the past, the SP has contested elections on a limited number of seats in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
