LUCKNOW: After facing a rout in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha election even after cobbling together a formidable gathbandhan with arch-rival BSP in UP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) leadership is mulling a crackdown on a number of party leaders including the state chief.
Holding a series of meetings of the party’s district units since the result day, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is trying to identify the reasons behind the party's defeat in 32 of 37 seats in the state.
As per informed sources, it is not only Akhilesh who has vented his anger on party office bearers seeking a detailed report on the factors behind the drubbing, miffed party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is also believed to have given a dressing down to party leaders holding them responsible for the poor show.
Mulayam had opposed the SP’s alliance with the BSP unabashedly from the beginning. He felt that the SP chief had sacrificed the party’s stature and its interests by tying up with the BSP.
Mulayam, who reached the party office on Monday, was believed to have claimed that senior party leaders failed to get the people’s pulse owing to their slackness.
As per party insiders, a hurt Mulayam asked party leaders the reasons for the defeat and condemned them for failing to save the family bastions. He was peeved not only over the party’s dismal show, but also criticised the alliance with the BSP yet again.
Moreover, there were many voices echoing the same sentiment claiming that the foundation of SP’s defeat was laid at the time of seat sharing with the BSP. “Many such seats which Samajwadi Party hoped to win had gone to BSP’s share, while we got some of those seats where we never had any presence,” said a senior SP leader.
Party leaders felt betrayed as they believed the BSP ended up reaping all the benefits to increase its tally. “We failed to understand the BSP's designs,” said a leader on condition of anonymity.
Following the results, Akhilesh had sacked all 40 media panellists who he had nominated earlier for participating in media debates and putting forth the party’s perspective.
Now the SP chief is mulling a revamp of the party giving representation to every section of society.
He is even contemplating reorganising frontal organisations including Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, Lohia Vahini, and Mulayam Singh Youth Brigade.
Meanwhile, a western UP based Samajwadi Party leader Shravan Tyagi is believed to have written a letter to the SP chief cautioning him of his coterie which came in the way of those seeking to meet the party chief.
“These leaders are sycophants and have no grassroots connect. The party needs to appoint faces who understand ground realities,” said Tyagi, who claimed to be the party’s youth organisation Samajwadi Party Lohia Vahini’s national secretary.