Aiming to limber up for the 2022 UP assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party has decided to stage state-wide protests and demonstrations on the 22nd of each month till the elections.
This was decided in the day-long meeting of SP national executive held in Lucknow on Saturday. SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav was conspicuous by his absence in the meeting as he was said to be busy in Delhi.
The 2022 UP assembly elections occupied the top slot of the SP national executive’s agenda and the party decided to go it alone when the state went to the hustings.
The SP will, however, take along small political outfits like Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal and a few others.
In the 2017 UP assembly polls, the SP had aligned with Congress and it had joined hands with arch rival Bahujan Samaj Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But both these experiments ended in disaster for the party.
In the post-meeting media briefing, SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that the party would launch a mass contact programme with a Cycle Yatra across the state on the birth anniversary of party ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia on March 23.
“From April 22, the party will stage demonstrations at all district headquarters with focus on 22 issues concerning welfare and grievances of the people on the 22nd of every month. Party cadre will focus on these issues to oppose the Yogi government in UP,” he said.
Chaudhary said that all members of SP national executive were present in the meeting that was chaired by party presided Akhilesh Yadav.
He further said that all senior SP leaders, including Ram Gopal Yadav, former MP Kiranmoy Nanda, leader of opposition in UP Assembly and Legislative Council were also present in the meeting.
Chaudhary said that besides detailed deliberations on the 2022 assembly elections, the national executive also adopted a resolution on the prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The SP spokesman said the political and economic resolution focused on the present economic mess and atmosphere of communal hatred and bigotry across the country.
“The Samajwadi Party will offer to replace the politics of hatred and bitterness with love and harmony and restore an atmosphere and environment of communal harmony and brotherhood,” he said.