Samajwadi Party

The Samajwadi Party (abbr. SP; translation: Socialist Party, founded 4 October 1992) is a socialist political party in India. It was founded by formerly Janata Dal politicians Mulayam Singh Yadav and Beni Prasad Verma and is headquartered in New Delhi. The Samajwadi Party is currently led by former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav after he was chosen as the President at the party's national convention held in 2017.[14]

Samajwadi Party
AbbreviationSP
PresidentAkhilesh Yadav
ChairpersonAkhilesh Yadav
SecretaryKiranmoy Nanda
General SecretaryRam Gopal Yadav
Shivpal Singh Yadav
Lok Sabha LeaderS. T. Hasan
Rajya Sabha LeaderRam Gopal Yadav
FounderMulayam Singh Yadav
Beni Prasad Verma
Founded4 October 1992 (1992-10-04)
Split fromJanata Dal
Headquarters18 Copernicus Lane, New Delhi
Student wingSamajwadi Chatra Sabha[1]
Youth wingSamajwadi Prahari[2] Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha[3]
Lohiya vahini
Women's wingSamajwadi Mahila Sabha[4]
IdeologySocialism[5]
Democratic socialism[6]
Left-wing populism[7]
Social conservatism[8][9]
Political positionLeft-wing[10][11][9]
International affiliationProgressive Alliance[12]
Colours    Red and Green
ECI StatusState Party[13]
Alliance I.N.D.I.A. (2023-present)
Seats in Lok Sabha
3 / 543
Seats in Rajya Sabha
3 / 245
Seats in State Legislative Assemblies
114 / 4,036

(3987 MLAs & 49 Vacant)

Indian states
111 / 403
(Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly)
2 / 288
(Maharashtra Legislative Assembly)
1 / 182

(Gujarat Legislative Assembly)

Number of states and union territories in government
0 / 31
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
www.samajwadiparty.in

While the party is largely based in Uttar Pradesh, it has significant presence in other states as well.[15] The party has been the ruling power in the state of Uttar Pradesh for four terms – three times under Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, the fourth and most recent being Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's full majority government in the 2012-2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The coalition of party and its alliance partners SP+ has one of the largest vote bases in the state of Uttar Pradesh in terms of the collective voting pattern in the state-based electoral system, with more than 37% vote share in the 2022 elections.[16][17]

History

The Samajwadi Party was one of several parties that emerged when the Janata Dal (People's League) fragmented into several regional parties.[18] The party was founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Beni Prasad Verma in 1992.[19][20] Created just months before the Babri Masjid demolition, the party is said to have played a key role in preventing violence following this event.[21] In West Bengal, the West Bengal Socialist Party of Kiranmoy Nanda merged with the SP in 2010. The Samajwadi Party is now led by former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav after he was chosen as the President at the party's national convention held on 1 January 2017.

The party have contested Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections around the country, but by far the bulk of its victories have been in Uttar Pradesh. In the 2012 legislative assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, SP registered a landslide victory with a clear majority in the house, thus enabling it to form a government in the state. This was expected to be the fifth term of Mulayam Singh Yadav as Chief Minister of state, but he selected his son, Akhilesh Yadav instead. This became official on 15 March. It was also the first time that SP was head of the UP government for a full term of five years.[22][23] However, the party suffered a landslide defeat in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Election, slumping to only 47 seats as the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to victory.

Proposed merger

In 2014, there was a proposed merger of the Samajwadi Party with some other Janata Parivar parties uniting with Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar.[24][25]

National Convention of January 2017

In a National Convention held on 1 January 2017, called by Ram Gopal Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav was appointed as president of the party.[26]

Position in state and national politics

Alliance

The Samajwadi Party provided outside support to the United Progressive Alliance government up to the fourteenth general election. After the fourteenth general election, its support became unnecessary when the UPA became the largest alliance. It contested the 2009 general election in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party of Bihar.[27]

In April 2014, the Save Indian Family Foundation encouraged voters to support the Samajwadi Party or vote None of the above because they had said they opposed the alleged misuse of gender bias laws.[28]

In the last general election, the Samajwadi Party was defeated by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh though forming alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party.[29] It is currently the thirteenth largest party in parliament.[30] In the general elections of 2019, it won only 5 seats, while the Indian National Congress gained 52 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party obtained a clear mandate with 303 seats.

Recently, Samajwadi Party joined the newly formed Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance formed as umbrella alliance of opposition parties in India.[31][32]

Presence in state assemblies

The SP has two MLAs each in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and one newly elected MLA in the 2022 Gujarat assembly election.

Samajwadi Prahari and Samajwadi Sanwad

The Samajwadi Party has front line campaigning groups.[33] Ongoing debate on party policy comes from many of their leaders. Among them are:

  1. Chhatra Sabha Sanwad
  2. Yuvjan Sabha Sanwad
  3. Samajwadi prahari Sanwad
  4. Mulayam Singh Youth Brigade Sanwad
  5. Lohiya Vahini Sanwad
  6. Shikshak Sabha Sanwad
  7. Vyapar Sabha Sanwad
  8. Adhivakta Sabha Sanwad
  9. Ambedkar Vahini Samwad

Electoral performances

Lok sabha elections
Lok Sabha Term Lok Sabha Seats contested Seats won  % of votes State (seats) Ref
11th Lok Sabha 1996 111 16 3.3% Uttar Pradesh (16) [34]
12th Lok Sabha 1998 166 19 4.9% Uttar Pradesh (19) [35]
13th Lok Sabha 1999 151 26 3.8% Uttar Pradesh (26) [36]
14th Lok Sabha 2004 237 36 4.3% Uttar Pradesh (35)
Uttarakhand (1)		 [37]
15th Lok Sabha 2009 193 23 3.4% Uttar Pradesh (23) [38]
16th Lok Sabha 2014 197 5 3.4% Uttar Pradesh (5) [39]
17th Lok Sabha 2019 49 5 2.6% Uttar Pradesh (5) [40]

Assembly elections
Vidhan Sabha Term UP elections Seats contested Seats won  % of votes Party Votes Ref
Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly
12th Vidhan Sabha 1993 256 109 17.94 8,963,697 [41]
13th Vidhan Sabha 1996 281 110 21.80 12,085,226 [42]
14th Vidhan Sabha 2002 390 143 25.37 13,612,509 [43]
15th Vidhan Sabha 2007 393 97 25.43 13,267,674 [44]
16th Vidhan Sabha 2012 401 224 29.15 22,107,241 [45]
17th Vidhan Sabha 2017 311 47 21.82 18,923,689 [46]
18th Vidhan Sabha 2022 347 111 32.06 29,543,934 [47]
Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly
11th Vidhan Sabha 1998 228 4 1.58 4,19,626 [48]
12th Vidhan Sabha 2003 161 7 3.71 9,46,891 [49]
13th Vidhan Sabha 2008 187 1 1.90 5,01,324 [50]
14th Vidhan Sabha 2013 161 0 1.2 4,04,853 [51]
15th Vidhan Sabha 2018 52 1 1.3 4,96,025 [52]
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
9th Vidhan Sabha 1995 22 3 0.93 3,56,731 [53]
10th Vidhan Sabha 1999 15 2 0.7 2,27,640 [54]
11th Vidhan Sabha 2004 95 0 1.13 4,71,425 [55]
12th Vidhan Sabha 2009 31 4 1.11 3,37,378 [56]
13th Vidhan Sabha 2014 22 1 0.17 92,304 [57]
14th Vidhan Sabha 2019 7 2 0.22 1,23,267 [58]

List of chief ministers
No. Name
Constituency		 Term of office[59][60] Tenure length Party[lower-alpha 1] Assembly[61]
(Election)		 Ref
1 Mulayam Singh Yadav
Jaswantnagar		 4 December 1993 3 June 1995 1 year, 181 days Samajwadi Party Twelfth Assembly (1993–95)
(1993 election)		 [62]
(1) Mulayam Singh Yadav
Gunnaur		 29 August 2003 13 May 2007 3 years, 257 days Samajwadi Party Fourteenth Assembly (2002–07)
(2002 election)		 [62]
2 Akhilesh Yadav
MLC		 15 March 2012 19 March 2017 5 years, 4 days Samajwadi Party Sixteenth Assembly (2012–17)
(2012 election)		 [63]
  1. This column only names the chief minister's party. The state government he or she heads may be a complex coalition of several parties and independents; these are not listed here.

List of central ministers
No. Name Term of office Portfolio Prime Minister
1 Mulayam Singh Yadav 1 June 1996 19 March 1998 Minister of Defence H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral
2 Janeshwar Mishra 10 July 1996 May 1997 Minister of Water Resources H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral
3 Beni Prasad Verma 1 June 1996 19 March 1998 Minister of Communications and Information Technology H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral
4 Saleem Iqbal Shervani[64] May 1997 19 March 1998 Minister of External Affairs(M.O.S.) I.K. Gujral

Prominent members

State leadership
  • Abu Asim Azmi: Maharashtra
  • Naresh Uttam Patel: Uttar Pradesh
  • Ramayan Singh Patel: Madhya Pradesh
  • Satyanarayan Sachan: Uttarakhand
  • Manjappa Yadav: Karnataka
  • Devendra Upadhyaya: Gujarat
  • Manas Bhattacharya: West Bengal
  • Mukesh Yadav: Rajasthan
  • Sukhvinder Singh: Punjab
  • Dr Saji Pothen Thomas: Kerala
  • B Jagadeesh Yadav: Andhra Pradesh
  • Om Prakash Sahu:Chhattisgarh

See also

References
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