SP President Akhilesh Yadav
In the Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party managed to win maximum 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh. In 2024, the SP managed to post the best performance in its three-decade political history. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is now working on a strategy to get the SP recognized on the national platform so that the SP can get the status of a national party. For this, Akhilesh Yadav has set his sights on assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, where he plans to try his luck in Muslim-dominated seats. In this way SP is trying to achieve the status of a national party with the help of Muslim votes.
Akhilesh Yadav has appointed his senior leader Mata Prasad Pandey, MLA Lucky Yadav, Tufani Saroj and Indrajit Saroj as in-charges for the Maharashtra assembly elections. Along with the election in-charge, Maharashtra state president Abu Azmi will also be a big face. Abu Azmi came to Lucknow on Thursday and met Akhilesh Yadav. He discussed the preparations for the Maharashtra elections. After this, Akhilesh Yadav has announced the names of the election in-charges.
The SP plans to contest in seats dominated by Muslims and North Indian voters in Maharashtra, for which the names of candidates are also almost finalised. The party is eyeing seats in Mumbai and the adjoining Thane district. The SP is set to field its candidates in Muslim-majority constituencies like Dhulia and Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Mankor Shivaji Nagar in Mumbai, Byculla, Versova, Thane’s Bhiwandi East and Bhiwandi West adjacent seats. SP’s Abu Azmi from Mankar Shivaji Nagar seat and Raees Sheikh from Bhiwandi East are the incumbent MLAs of the party.
Preparing to fight in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana as well
Like Maharashtra, SP has prepared to contest assembly elections in Jammu, Kashmir and Haryana. The SP is eyeing seats in Jammu and Kashmir where Muslim voters play a crucial role. It includes assembly seats like Pulwama, Sopore, Inderwal, Kishtwar, Rajpora, Kulgam and Anantnag. The SP is eyeing five to six assembly seats in Haryana, which has a significant population of Muslims and Yadav voters. The SP has planned to contest the seats in Gurugram, Nooh, Rewari and Mahendragarh districts. Muslims and Yadavs are in good numbers in these seats. That is why SP is trying its luck on these seats.
Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh are mostly with SP. Even in the Lok Sabha elections, Muslims voted completely for Bharat Gathbandhan. Akhilesh Yadav feels that its impact can be seen in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir as well. Muslims are considered the core vote bank of SP in UP and SP has established its dominance with the help of Muslim votes.
Akhilesh Yadav wants to contest the elections together under the India Alliance, but the Congress has not yet given the green signal. For this, the SP has also put a condition that if the Congress wants a seat in the UP by-election, it should be given seats in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu-Kashmir. The SP has also decided that it is ready to try its luck in the elections alone if the Congress does not give it a seat. SP has started preparations for this. SP’s strategy is that whether it gets any seat or not, it will help the party to make its place. If SP gets vote share, it will be easy to get national party status.
SP to get national party status
In September 2022, leaders of the SP’s National Working Committee resolved to give the party national status. Not only is the SP the third national party in the country in terms of seats in the Lok Sabha, but in terms of vote percentage it also got the highest number of votes in the country after the BJP and the Congress. Despite this success, the SP regrets that it is still far from the goal of attaining the status of a national party. For this, party supremo Akhilesh Yadav is eyeing the assembly elections of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Haryana.
To achieve the status of a national party, the SP will have to garner more vote share than opening accounts in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Maharashtra. SP’s political base is in UP, it has 37 MPs and 106 MLAs. SP’s vote share in UP is also more than 30 percent, but this alone is not enough. To become a national party, the SP has to get six percent vote share in the assembly elections of four states. He has a vote share in UP and if he gets 6 percent votes in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections, Akhilesh Yadav’s dream will come true.
What is the formula for becoming a national party?
To achieve national party status, any political party in the country must win at least four Lok Sabha seats and secure 6 percent of the votes in the Lok Sabha elections or 6 percent of the votes in the assembly elections of four or more states. Apart from this, if a party gets two percent votes in the Lok Sabha elections in three states, it can also achieve the status of a national party. Apart from this, if a party is recognized as a regional party in four or more states, it succeeds in getting the status of a national party.
The SP has maintained its position as a regional party in UP for three decades. SP won 37 Lok Sabha seats in 2024 and won 111 MLAs in 2022 elections. In this way SP has targeted to get six percent votes in three states outside UP. That is why the SP also contested the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress also gave one Lok Sabha seat to the SP in Madhya Pradesh, but the nomination of the party’s candidate was also cancelled. Now the SP has planned to participate in the elections of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. For this, the strategy of contesting elections on the formula of UP has been made.
SP has no significant effect in other states
However, SP’s political base is limited to UP only. SP has not left any significant impact on its own in the elections of other states. SP could not even open its account in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections of 2023. Compared to 2018, SP’s vote share has declined and it could not even get half a percent of votes. Here SP tried its luck in Yadav dominated seats. In Haryana too, the party did not perform well in the 2019 assembly elections. She contested on four seats and her deposits were forfeited on all of them. However, he got only 2.15 percent of the votes.
In Maharashtra, the SP contested 7 seats in the 2019 elections, winning two MLAs. SP got 0.22 votes. Thus SP got less than one percent votes. The SP plans to re-enter the polls this time, but focus on seats with a Muslim majority vote. The SP feels that it can get national party status if it succeeds in getting Muslim voters. Haryana has 10 percent, Maharashtra 12 percent and Kashmir region over 90 percent Muslim population. Hence, the SP has also started to have hopes of becoming a national party. In such a situation, it has to be seen whether Akhilesh Yadav can get the votes of Muslims?
