Lucknow: Attempting a course correction in the party after its Lok Sabha poll debacle, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav dissolved Friday all its units in Uttar Pradesh, including the state executive, and district and youth wings, sources said. The party, however, has retained state president Naresh Uttam.
“Party president Akhilesh Yadav has dissolved the state executive. All district executives and the executives of youth and other wings have also been dissolved,” a senior party leader told this agency requesting anonymity. “A new executive will be formed soon.”
The surprise development is being seen as an effort by the SP to recover its electoral base after its poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls when it won just five seats – the same as in 2014 – despite stitching a pre-poll alliance with the BSP and the RLD.
Much to the SP’s chagrin, while its tally remained stuck at five, the tie-up benefitted Mayawati’s BSP, which bagged 10 seats in the state – it drew a blank in 2014 general polls.
What rubbed salt to the SP’s wound was the shock defeat of Dimple Yadav, the wife of Akhilesh who had entered the fray as a sitting MP from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat.
Just a day after the Lok Sabha results were declared, Akhilesh Yadav sacked the panel of leaders appointed as spokespersons for TV channels.
A party insider said Akhilesh Yadav began churning within the organisation the very day the results were out, with over a dozen Assembly by-polls not far away, and the bigger target of 2022 Assembly elections in mind.
“After the LS polls, party president Akhilesh Yadav has been meeting people and taking feedbacks from party workers and office-bearers. After going through all the aspects, the party executives will be reorganised with new ‘josh’ (enthusiasm) to take on the BJP,” party chief spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said.
The Lok Sabha election debacle for the SP is the second instance when Akhilesh has miscalculated his move. He had tried his hand at coalition-building in Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 Assembly elections as well, teaming up with Congress. His father and party’s founding leader Mulayam Singh Yadav had advised him against the move. He was ignored.
The SP-Congress alliance failed miserably and BJP’s Yogi Adityanath replaced Akhilesh Yadav as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls too, Mulayam Singh Yadav had advised him against forming alliance with the BSP. The veteran leader’s advice was not heeded to again.
PTI