Lok Sabha Elections: Samajwadi Party struggling with infighting

The main opposition party of Uttar Pradesh, SP, is struggling with infighting these days. Compared to the 2017 assembly elections, the strength of SP definitely increased in the 2022 assembly elections, but by the time of Lok Sabha elections, many big leaders and MLAs of the party left SP. Swami Prasad Maurya, who boasted of strengthening the PDA, has also distanced himself from the SP. Not only this, even the allies of SP, including SubhaSP, Apna Dal, Kamerawadi and Mahandal, also moved away from SP one by one. Just before the Lok Sabha elections, RLD completed the right task by becoming a part of the BJP alliance. in such difficult times The process of SP ticket distribution has left common party workers in confusion.

This time, SP has left BSP behind in the matter of ticket exchange. This would perhaps be the first time in the history of SP that SP has changed the ticket on such a large scale after declaring the names of the candidates. Call it internal strife of the party, this compulsion, SP will have to bear the brunt of it in the Lok Sabha elections. Because the candidate whose ticket was changed by the party after the declaration may not oppose it, but his co-cognate voters will definitely vote against it. But why does SP chief Akhilesh Yadav not understand this simple thing? According to political analysts, if SP had not swapped tickets and had contested the elections with strength, SP would have been in direct competition on more than two dozen seats in UP. In the changed scenario, SP seems to be out of the fight. The way SP has canceled the tickets of candidates for the first and second phase at the last moment of nomination, it seems that SP will definitely reshuffle the tickets of many Lok Sabha candidates in the remaining phases also. Due to this step of SP leadership, the declared party candidates from other seats of the state are in doubt. Because of this he is not able to even campaign properly. They are worried that the party may cancel their ticket at the last moment. Therefore, instead of doing public relations in the area, he is roaming around Lucknow.

SP President Akhilesh Yadav has almost decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections. At the same time, senior SP leader Shivpal Yadav also wants to let his son Aditya Yadav contest the Lok Sabha elections instead of contesting the Lok Sabha elections himself. The fact that two prominent SP leaders, Akhilesh and Shivpal Yadav, are not contesting the Lok Sabha elections is sure to send a wrong message to the workers. Because this will only send the message that these people are shying away from contesting elections due to the fear of defeat in the Modi wave. At the same time, the rift between Azam Khan and Akhilesh Yadav, who was once the policy maker of SP, has also come to the fore. To resolve the rift, Akhilesh Yadav went to Sitapur jail to meet Azam Khan but the matter did not work out.

The way ST Hasan’s ticket was canceled under the pressure of Azam Khan and Ruchiveera was made its candidate, it can be easily inferred that everything is not going well in SP. Enrollment for the second phase has been completed. Bharatiya Janata Party has also started a vigorous aggressive campaign. Whereas SP is still busy in ticket distribution. Omprakash Rajbhar, Swami Prasad Maurya, Chandrashekhar Azad and Pallavi Patel have distanced themselves from SP. In such a situation, only time will tell how much benefit Congress will get from the party which has lost its support base in Uttar Pradesh, but there are clear signs of SP getting wiped out in the Lok Sabha elections. Because the public has rejected the alliance of SP and Congress in the 2017 assembly elections. This time again the same alliance is in front of the public. It does not seem that the alliance of SP and Congress, which was defeated before the elections, will be able to stop the victory chariot of BJP in UP.

Looking at the working culture of the SP chief, it seems that Akhilesh Yadav still does not consider himself inferior to the Chief Minister. Neither does he take feedback from the party’s grassroots workers and leaders nor does he pay any attention to them. This is the reason why the leaders who were considered close to Mulayam Singh Yadav have today said goodbye to SP out of compulsion. Akhilesh also considers it an insult to consult the elderly leaders of the party. If we talk about the surrounding districts of Etah, Etawah and Mainpuri, then a dozen leaders including former minister Narendra Singh Yadav, former minister Avadpal Yadav, former MP Devendra Singh Yadav, MLC Ashu Yadav and former MLA Shishupal Yadav have left SP. . Akhilesh Yadav also raised the issue of caste based census loudly but he could not remain firm on it. Same is the case with PDA also. Swami Prasad Maurya, Pallavi Patel and Chandrashekhar have blown away the PDA. Akhilesh talks about PDA but far from organizing PDA, even the leaders doing PDA politics kept distance from him.

BJP, which was already strong before Subhashpa and RLD became part of NDA, has now become stronger. This time in Ayodhya, SP gave ticket to former minister Awadhesh Prasad under the PDA formula. But IPS officer Arvind Sen Yadav, son of former MP Mitrasen Yadav, has made the path of SP candidate difficult by coming into the fray on CPI ticket. Due to this, Yadav votes are sure to get divided. In such a situation, if Awadhesh Prasad’s ticket is changed then SC voters will definitely be angry with SP. More or less the situation is the same in many other seats of the state.

Tickets of seven candidates of the first phase have been changed. In this, changes were made several times in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Misrikh and Meerut. Dharmendra Yadav was given ticket from Badaun in the first list itself. On February 20, Shivpal Yadav was fielded in place of Dharmendra Yadav. At the last moment in Moradabad, sitting MP Dr. ST Hasan was fielded and he also filed his nomination. On the last day of nomination, the symbol was given to Ruchi Veera instead of Dr. ST Hasan.

SP first declared advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh as its candidate from Meerut-Hapur parliamentary constituency. On April 1, his ticket was changed to Sardhana MLA Atul Pradhan. On the same day that Atul Pradhan filed his nomination, the information about his ticket being canceled came in the night. After this the party gave ticket to Sunita Verma, wife of former MLA Yogesh Verma. Similarly, in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Dr. Mahendra Nagar was declared the first candidate. After this, Rahul Awana was made the candidate on this seat. Later again Dr. Mahendra Nagar was declared the candidate. In Misrikh too, first Rampal Rajvanshi, then his son Manoj Kumar Rajvanshi and then his daughter-in-law Sangeeta Rajvanshi were made candidates. More or less the same situation occurred in Baghpat also where former SP District President Manoj Chaudhary was fielded. On the last day of nomination, the ticket was changed to former MLA Amarpal Sharma. Similarly, in Bijnor also, the ticket of former MP Yashveer Singh was cut and given to Deepak Saini. Apart from this, SP workers have gone on revolt demanding change of candidates on many other seats also. This only proves that the SP President did not consult the local leaders while selecting the candidate. SP workers are also embroiled in this turmoil. Eight-time MLA and two-time MP Kunwar Revati Raman Singh has also left SP and joined Congress. At the same time, the process of people leaving SP is not stopping.

– Brijanandan Raju

(The author is a senior journalist)