Anxious to shed the regional tag and replace it with that with a national one, the Samajwadi Party is desperate to spread its wings beyond Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a series of public meetings in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav urged people to cast their votes for the party candidate and enable them to achieve the status of a national party.
Since its inception in 1992, the Samajwadi Party has contested Assembly and Parliament elections in over six states, yet the national status has eluded the major Opposition party of Uttar Pradesh.
Undeterred by the series of failures in electoral ventures in Gujarat and Karnataka, the Samajwadi Party is contesting all 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls and some seats in Chhattisgarh.
In the past, the SP contested elections on a limited number of seats in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Outside UP, SP candidates won in Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in the past.
Earlier this year, party chief Akhilesh Yadav had stated that it was his new year resolution to turn his outfit into a national party. “The Samajwadi Party has been a regional party since its inception in 1992. It is looking forward to becoming a national party sooner or later and the Hindi belt will be the best bet to start with,” said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
The SP is keen on Madhya Pradesh as it is the state where it has been winning Assembly seats since 1992. The SP opened its account in MP Assembly poll in 1993 by winning a seat in a bypoll. Later, in 1998, 2003, and 2008, it bagged four, seven and one seat in MP Assembly elections respectively. However, despite being in power in UP in 2013, the party drew a blank due to internal turmoil in the MP Assembly polls.
As per provisions of Representation of People’s Act, it won’t be a cakewalk for the Samajwadi Party to achieve the national status. Under Section 6 (B) of the Act, a party could be recognised as a national party if it has sent MPs to Lok Sabha from at least two per cent of the total number of Lok Sabha constituencies in India (which works out to 11 constituencies). In addition, these candidates have to be elected from not less than three states.
Besides, a regional party needs to secure at least six per cent of valid votes polled in any four or more states in elections to the Lok Sabha or state Legislative Assembly and it has to win at least four seats in Lok Sabha from any state or states.
During Mulayam Singh’s last tenure as Chief Minister of UP, the Samajwadi Party had made an attempt to make inroads into South India by winning a seat in Karnataka when former Karnataka CM S Bangarappa contested as an SP candidate and won.