LUCKNOW: With the recent influx of leaders into the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav faces the problem of plenty in ticket distribution. The aspirants include turncoats, allies and his own party men. Sources point out dozens of seats where deciding a nominee would be a tough task for the SP chief. Akhilesh will have to do a delicate balancing act of keeping his allies happy while, at the same time, taking care of the individual leaders, the prized ‘imports.’ The SP has allied with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L), the Mahan Dal, the Janwadi Party (Socialist) and the Nationalist Congress Party. The SP chief on Wednesday held a three-hour meeting with the heads of these parties.
This was his first joint meeting with alliance partners. Party insiders said the SP is likely to retain around 350 of the total 403 seats and distribute the remaining 53 among allies in east, west, Rohilkhand and central UP. Sources said the party is likely to keep 18 seats across Bundelkhand with itself. “About 36 seats will be given to the RLD, 10 to the SBSP, nearly six to the PSP-L and the rest will be distributed among the other partners,” said a senior party leader privy to the deliberations at the allies’ meeting.
The party has already named KK Sharma, an NCP member, as a candidate from Anupshahr in Bulandshahr district. The BJP had swept all seven assembly segments, including Anupshahr of this district, in previous assembly elections. The SP was pushed to number three and the BSP was the runnersup in 2017. Though SP and RLD released the first joint list of 29 candidates on Thursday, the RLD and the PSP-L are looking for more seats. The RLD, sources said, wants two seats in eastern UP.
So far, 10 BSP and 13 BJP MLAs, including the two Yogi ministers, have joined the SP. All of them expect the party ticket as they feared denial of nomination in their respective parties. The SP also has made a deal on some seats with the alliance partners to field SP candidates on their symbols and viceversa. The SP is likely to oblige the turncoats. However, the heavy influx of leaders and alliance partnerships would deprive many of the party’s original leaders of the opportunity to contest the polls on almost 80 seats. This may lead to discontent among the SP cadre as well as those who have recently entered the party.
There could be some tricky situations also; for example the curious case of the Nakur assembly segment in Saharanpur. Dharam Singh Saini, who quit as a minister in the Yogi government to join the SP, is a two-term sitting MLA from Nakur. He is a strong claimant for this seat with former Congress strongman Imran Masood, who recently switched to the SP, was the runner-up against Saini in Nakur both in 2017 and 2012 elections. Masood is also a strong candidate from the same constituency. Besides, many local SP workers could also be aspiring for the ticket from Nakur seat.
A similar situation is cropping up for the SP chief in over 18 seats where sitting MLAs of the BJP and BSP have joined the SP in recent days. Bigwig Swami Prasad Maurya, a sitting MLA from Padrauna, will not be much of a problem as SP had stood fourth in 2012 and had given the seat to ally Congress in 2017. Congress stood number three then. So, Maurya would be an obvious choice in Padrauna. However, Maurya’s son Utkrisht could cause some problems from Unchhar constituency. Utkrisht had lost in Unchahar to SP’s Manoj Pandey in 2012 and 2017 Assembly elections.
He had contested as a BSP candidate in 2012 and as a BJP candidate in 2017 but lost despite a strong Modi wave. It would be tricky for Akhilesh to accommodate both Utkrisht and Pandey. A senior SP leader said party tickets have not been promised to all newcomers. “Adhyakshaji (president) has been saying that all will get respect. Moreover, seats are not the only op- tion. The party has other ways of accommodating them like sending them to Rajya Sabha or the UP Legislative Council, giving them chairmanship of various boards of the state government (minister rank positions), senior party positions
and a party ticket for Lok Sabha polls in 2024,” the SP leader said, requesting anonymity.
