After the third meeting of the opposition bloc INDIA at Mumbai, Samajwadi Party is eyeing a bigger role for itself in national politics.
With the end of a 25-year-long coalition era from 1989 to 2014 following the Bharatiya Janata Party attaining clear majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019, the regional parties have been marginalised in national politics and they have ceased to be the kingmaker. The strategists of the SP are confident that if the INDIA bloc is able to form the next government at the Centre in 2024 , the party will regain the clout it once enjoyed.
Earlier, reluctant to have any truck with the Congress following its alliance with the grand old party in the 2017 UP assembly election that resulted in a disaster, the SP is shedding its initial hesitation and wants to take the Congress on board in Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav, on Friday, said in Mumbai that his party wanted talks on seat sharing to commence at the earliest.
Sources in the SP said the INDIA bloc was a bargaining chip for the party to seek seats outside Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming assembly elections in five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The SP has a clear ambition to turn itself into a national entity from a ‘regional party’ in Uttar Pradesh. For now, it continues to be a regional party even 31 years after it was founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav. Previous attempts to make the party get the national status, when Mulayam was at the helm, failed.
Akhilesh Yadav, who took over as national president of the party in January 2017, has the ambition to shed the regional party tag from his party. In the last national executive meeting of the party in September 2022, he had said “let’s pledge to make the party a national party by the time we meet at the next national convention”.
The SP, since its inception in October 1992, has won assembly seats outside UP in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh (a constituency that now falls in Telangana), Gujarat and Uttarakhand. For instance, the party won seven assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh in 2003. This was its best electoral performance outside UP.
The Election Commission of India recognises a political party as a national party if it secures at least 6 per cent of the total valid votes polled in four or more states in a general election to the Lok Sabha or to the legislative assembly.
The SP secured over 32 per cent votes in the 2022 UP assembly election, but it could never touch the 6 per cent mark in any other state. The party’s next pan-India challenge is the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Before that, elections to Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana assemblies will be held towards the end of 2023. The SP expects the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) coalition, especially the Congress, to give it some seats outside UP in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in five states.
SP spokesperson Udaivir Singh said in Lucknow: “Of course, we have national ambitions. We would like to get seats outside UP. Which political party would not welcome the idea? But all such things – seat adjustments in UP and outside, formula for seat sharing among the allies – will be discussed by the coordination committee of 13 members.