For a party of mixed fortunes, finally a win

The Samajwadi Party’s Abu Asim Azmi has unsuccessfully contested three consecutive elections — state and national, reports Zeeshan Shaikh.

The Samajwadi Party’s Abu Asim Azmi has unsuccessfully contested three consecutive elections — state and national.

HT Image

In a quirky twist of fate, this time around, Azmi won from two seats — Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar and Bhiwandi West.

The change in Azmi’s fortunes is symbolic of the Samajwadi Party’s up-one-day-down-the-other fortunes.

From sending three MLAs to the Assembly in 1995, two of whom later left the party, the SP has not been able to make its mark at all ever since.

In the 2004 state election, the party did not win a single seat despite garnering 1.13 per cent of total votes polled.

In the same election, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) got 0.62 per cent of total votes polled, and managed to win three seats.

Now, despite giving its best performance in years, the SP is unlikely to reap the benefits of its performance. Since the Congress-NCP have the numbers they need to form the government, they will not woo smaller parties for those all-important single-digit numbers.

“I believe that supporting the Congress-NCP will mean belittling our voters, who voted us as an alternative to them,” Azmi said on Thursday. “However, we will abide by what ever decision our high command takes.”