Samajwadi party president Akhilesh Yadav is finally getting battle ready to take on the BJP. SP was almost decimated in March UP assembly elections at the hands of the BJP. This time Akhilesh Yadav will lead from the front to attack the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in UP by launching a state wide campaign ‘Desh Bachao, Desh Banao’.
Akhilesh will kick off the campaign on the historic August Kranti Diwas from the Faizabad on August 9. This will be the first major political campaign to be organized by the party which was in a state of stupor after the crushing defeat at the hands of the BJP in UP assembly election. leaving behind the defeat and sidestepping prickings from the rival camp within the party led by his uncle and SP MlA Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh is set to hold the first national convention of the party in September-end.
Akhilesh , who is set to be elected the national president of the party for five years, is looking forward to make the party campaign a prologue to the convention. The campaign will focus on “the rising crime graph, unemployment, price hike and corruption in the BJP government”.
Akhilesh will formally launch the campaign by holding a rally in a small town Madna, 15 km from Faizabad city where he will unveil a statue of freedom fighter and socialist leader Raj Bali Yadav on the occasion of his death anniversary.
“Party leaders have been asked to galvanise workers and stage demonstration to highlight the state government’s failure on all fronts,” said an office-bearer of the party. The SP has already extended support to the ongoing agitation by BTC (basic training certificate) teachers and shiksha mitras after the Supreme Court struck down their appointment.
The national convention of the Samajwadi Party will set the ball rolling for re-organisation and consolidation of the party after Akhilesh Yadav is formally elected as the national president of the party replacing Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akhilesh has already purged the party of most of the Shivpal loyalists and is letting some senior ones leave on their own.
An emergency convention of the party was held January 1 this year where Akhilesh Yadav was elected the party president. The national convention in September will formalize his status as the national president of the party. Since its inception in 1992, the SP had been electing the president for three years but under Akhilesh, the party amended its constitution making it a five-year term.
There is no let up in the battle of one-upmanship with in the first family of the Samajwadi party. Shivpal Yadav, the warring uncle of the SP president had supported the NDA candidate for president election Ram Nath Kovind while the SP officially supported UPA’s presidential candidate Meira Kumar.
“Akhilesh Yadav knows how to fight the political battle. He emerged victorious in the family feud and is now focused on the re-organisation of the party,” said an office bearer of the party. The party has already completed its one-and-a-half month long membership drive on June 30.By October 7, the party will have to submit its organisational structure to the Election Commission of India. After the convention, the Samajwadi Party (SP) will reposition Akhilesh as the rallying point for the entire opposition in the state.