Mulayam Singh Yadav is all set to be re-elected as the party chief on the opening day of the three days national convention of the ruling Samajwadi Party which kicked off amidst much fanfare here at state capital from Wednesday. The Party also received shot in the arm on the eve of their three days show when Jankranti Morcha, of Jharkhand, announced to merge into SP on Tuesday. The leaders of Morcha met Akhilesh Yadav and shown their full faith in his and SP’s supremo Mulayam Singh’s leadership.
The city of Nawabs is wearing a festive look with red-green flags and hoardings of the ruling SP adorning the roads for the national convention. Party leaders from outside the state and from other places have started arriving here. Being held in the city after 22 long years since the party’s inception, the meet comes at a critical juncture for the SP as it is being held exactly halfway into the Akhilesh Yadav-lgovernment’s five-year term.
It also follows the party’s rout in the lok Sabha polls earlier this year when it was reduced to a mere five MPs from its tally of 24 in 2009 in the face of a ‘Modi wave.’ Party spokesperson and state Minister Rajendra Choudhury told media persons here on Tuesday afternoon that the three day convention would be started from Wednesday with Mulayam Singh Yadav hoisting the SP flag at the Janeshwar Mishra park, the venue of the meet. Mulayam Singh Yadav will also unveil a 25-feet statue of Janeshwar Mishra there. Subsequently, the elections would be held for the party president who will address the convention.’’ The party will also discuss, the strategy for the next assembly polls in 2017,’’ Rajendra Choudhury stated.
Choudhury said at 3pm on the opening day, the political and economic resolution of the party would be tabled by party’s general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and immediately, discussions would start. The discussion on the political and economic resolutions would continue on the next day and it will be adopted in the evening of Thursday. On the last day of the convention on Friday, open convention would start at 10am and after the address of the SP national president, the convention would end in the noon. The convention will also mark party’s foundation day celebrations as it turns 22 this October. It came into being in October 4,1992.
There is still speculation whether expelled SP leader Amar Singh have been invited for this convention. Singh had participated in the inaugural function of the Janeshwar Mishra park on the invitation from Mulayam Singh Yadav. Several leaders of other political parties are also slated to join the SP during the convention. The ruling party has made five-star arrangements for around 10,000 participants as they will be served with sumptious Awadhi, South Indian and Punjabi cuisines. A 75,000 square feet waterproof pandal, a 40,000 watt line array sound system, 20,000 signboards and banners plastered all over lucknow are the highlights of this convention. An army of more than 1,000 workers is working round the clock to ensure arrangements are in place and on time. ‘’We have got this all-weather 450 X 60 feet pandal for the convention events and another 500 X 100 feet weather proof pandal
for serving food to the delegates over the three days,’’ sports and youth welfare minister Narad Rai, who is the in-charge of the arrangements, disclosed here on Tuesday. A documentary on the life and political travel of party founder and president Mulayam Singh Yadav would also be shown during the convention. As many as 24 huge speaker boxes will hang from the ceiling of the pandal which will have 93 cone loudspeakers on standby in case of any disruption in the main Public Address System (PAS). Apart from a well-equipped media centre with laptops for media persons to file their reports from the site, a multi-line phone system and data transfer system has been installed. A set of 6 multi-cam units with computerised remote controlled camera crane will cover the entire event 24X7 and will be relayed to two dozen lED screen installed within the venue and on roads leading to the venue. Arrangements are in place to capture the bird’s eye view of
the venue from time to time using camera mounted remote controlled mini drones. All electricity driven equipment will have a two tier back-up including a battery backed standby apart from a host of generator sets in case of any power failure during the event. For adequate lodging of the delegates, almost all the major hotels of the city have been booked for four days starting October 7. Three sets of reception committees have been formed to pick-up delegates from the three railway stations in lucknow including Badshahnagar and Charbagh . Twenty buses and 100 cars have been attached to each of the three committees to ferry delegates who arrive at lucknow by rail, to their place of lodging. Over 10,000 signboards apart from posters and cut outs have
come up all over the state capital in the past 48 hours. Volunteers of the youth wing of the party would be engaged to control the crowd at the venue. The district administration has also pushed in services of all available resources besides they summoned senior officers as well as other force personnel from outside to ensure peaceful celebration of Samajwadi Party’s convention.