Polls 2024: Akhilesh starts meets with party workers to assess Samajwadi Party’s strength
Lucknow: Determined to make significant gains, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has embarked on an ambitious strategy to assess and evaluate every parliamentary seat for which he is meeting leaders and workers at both the national and local levels.
“The primary objective of these meetings is to address factionalism among leaders and workers and infuse them with renewed enthusiasm for the party’s electoral campaign. Additionally, the party president is diligently identifying the most suitable candidates to contest the elections,” a senior Samajwadi Party leader told this reporter on Thursday.
Acknowledging the party’s underwhelming performance in the previous two Lok Sabha elections, held in 2014 and 2019, where it secured a mere five seats on both occasions, the Samajwadi Party is determined to rectify past mistakes.
In the 2019 elections, the SP formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), collectively known as the ‘Mahagathbandhan,’ or grand alliance. However, this coalition proved more beneficial to the BSP, which secured 10 seats, while the SP’s share was just five seats.
While the SP contested on 37 seats, the BSP and RLD fought on 38 and three seats respectively, leaving two seats for the Congress.
Out of the 37 seats contested by the SP, it managed to win only five, but secured the second position on 31 seats. Although Akhilesh Yadav himself won the Azamgarh seat in the previous election, he subsequently vacated it after securing victory in the 2022 assembly elections. The Samajwadi Party faced defeat in the Azamgarh by-election.
The Kannauj seat was contested by Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav, who unfortunately suffered defeat. Following the demise of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dimple had won the by-election for the Mainpuri seat.
In the 2019 elections, the Samajwadi Party emerged victorious in the following seats: Azamgarh, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, and Mainpuri.
