Samajwadi - Central News Hub

SP downplays Yadav image, courts non-Yadavs

The SP has chosen candidates belonging to OBC caste groups like Kurmi, Nishad, Rajbhar, Bind and Kushwaha on prominent seats….reports Asian Lite News

The Samajwadi Party (SP) is apparently making a conscious effort to downplay its pro-Yadav image and has focused on non-Yadav OBCs in candidate selection in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The SP has chosen candidates belonging to OBC caste groups like Kurmi, Nishad, Rajbhar, Bind and Kushwaha on prominent seats.

The idea is obviously to bring the other backward castes closer to Yadavs and form a consolidated vote base.

The Samajwadi Party, for instance, has fielded Pappu Nishad from Sant Kabir Nagar. He is challenging BJP candidate Parveen Nishad, son of Nishad Party President Sanjay Nishad in this seat.

In Basti, SP has chosen veteran Ram Prasad Chaudhary, a Kurmi, to challenge BJP sitting MP Harish Dwivedi. Dwivedi had defeated Chaudhary in the 2019 elections. The BSP, this time has nominated Daya Shankar Mishra as its candidate.

In Jaunpur, former BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha is the SP candidate. He is pitted against Kripa Shankar Singh of the BJP. Singh is the former minister of the Maharashtra government. The BSP has fielded Sreekala Reddy Singh, wife of mafia don and former MP Dhananjay Singh.

In Salempur, the Samajwadi Party has fielded Rama Shankar Rajbhar, who wields influence among his Rajbhar community, while the BJP has repeated its sitting MP Ravindra Kushwaha.

In Mirzapur, the Samajwadi candidate is Rajendra Bind who also belongs to the riverine community. The Mirzapur seat is held by BJP ally — Apna Dal (S) — and its leader Anupriya Patel will be seeking her third term from here.

In Maharajganj, the Samajwadi Party candidate is Narendra Chaudhary who belongs to the Kurmi community.

The SP has fielded Pintu Sainthwar, another OBC, from Kushinagar while it has named Lalji Varma, a Kurmi leader, from Ambedkar Nagar. The SP has also named a Kurmi candidate from Pratapgarh — S P Singh Patel.

“Yes, we have made a conscious effort this time to give greater representation to non-Yadav OBCs and this is a part of our PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpasankhyak) formula,” said a party spokesman.

The SP, this time, has only five Yadavs in its list — Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj, Dharmendra Yadav, from Azamgarh, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad and Aditya Yadav from Budaun. It is another matter that all of them belong to the same family.

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Mamata eyes alliance with Samajwadi Party in UP polls

He said the Trinamool was focusing on building a strong organisational structure and cadre base in Uttar Pradesh…reports Asian Lite News.

The Trinamool Congress is looking towards an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, due early next year.

A decision on this is expected to be taken by the leaders of both the parties in the coming weeks.

The Trinamool has already launched its mass contact programme in Uttar Pradesh from Pilibhit where farmers had staged a protest on the issue of cane dues. At least two districts in each of the 18 divisions will be covered to gauge the mood of the people and their expectations.

Mamata

Trinamool state president Neeraj Rai said, “We will tell the people about the policies implemented by us in West Bengal and will seek public feedback on the welfare policies of the state government. We will prepare the manifesto of the Trinamool Congress based on the expectations of the people.”

He said the Trinamool was focusing on building a strong organisational structure and cadre base in Uttar Pradesh.

“The party has added 100 committed members in more than 30 districts through the membership drive launched in May. The party leadership wants a strong unit in UP with a committed workforce ahead of the 2024 General Elections. Wherever we go, people want to know how we defeated the BJP in West Bengal,” he added.

Sources in the Samajwadi Party said that the alliance with Trinamool could materialise since Akhilesh Yadav shares a warm rapport with West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee.

“Besides, she is now an opposition mascot who crushed communal forces in her state against all odds. Her campaign in UP will certainly boost the opposition in general,” said a SP spokesman.

No tickets for office-bearers in UP polls: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh has made it clear that no office-bearer at the state level or district level would be eligible to contest elections. The party has said that if anyone was keen to contest polls, he or she would have to step down from the party post.

State BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh has already warned party leaders not to put up hoardings in their respective constituencies and claim their candidature.

According to sources, BJP’s general secretary (organisation), Sunil Bansal made this rule amply clear at a party meeting.

A BJP leader, who was present in the meeting, said that Bansal’s directive became talk of the meeting in which there were ample indications that several sitting MLAs may not get the ticket again.

Party sources said that the performance of the party in the panchayat elections would be one of the factors that would decide the fate of sitting MLAs.

“The MLAs in whose constituency the party fared poorly in panchayat elections may not get a ticket. Besides, reports of the party’s internal surveys about a legislator’s performance, will also be a deciding factor,” a party functionary said.

The BJP, in the past, had declared that relatives of party leaders would not be given a chance to contest panchayat elections. However, the party later gave preference to the winnability factor and willingly gave tickets to sons, daughters and wives of its leaders.

“In politics, rules are made to be broken and finally, it is the winnability factor that ultimately matters. It is only the performance of a legislator that can dilute the anti-incumbency factor. The party is determined to repeat its 2017 performance of 300+ seats and winnability is all that will matter,” said the functionary.

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