Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have started the process of selecting candidates for the urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party is yet to begin the screening exercise as it is waiting for the Allahabad High Court’s ruling on a bunch of petitions challenging the reservation of seats in municipal bodies for the other backward class (OBC).
The Lucknow bench of the High Court on Tuesday extended its interim stay order restraining the State Election Commission (SEC) from issuing notification for the urban local body elections till December 21.
One of the challenges being faced by the Samajwadi Party in shortlisting its candidates is the absence of its state and district organisational units which played a crucial role in filtering the applications. Following the party’s defeat in the bypolls to Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats in June last, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had dissolved its national, state and district executive committees, including its youth, trader and women wings.
Only party’s UP chief Naresh Uttam Patel retained his post. With no local units in place, the party has now constituted a committee in each district for screening the applicants. This committee comprises the outgoing district president, local party MLAs, former MLAs, former MPs and the president of assembly constituencies.
“This committee has the power to take decisions on the selection of candidates only for nagar panchayats. For nagar palikas and nagar nigams, the party’s state and national leadership will take the decision,” a district working president said.
“If there is no consensus on one name in nagar panchayats, a panel of three names will be sent to the party state headquarters for taking the final call,” he added.
For the applicants, the party has sent a proforma in each district to collect applications from candidates. In the proforma, a candidate has to confirm that he is an active member of the party and has taken lifetime membership of the party’s magazine ‘Samajwadi Bulletin’.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary confirmed that the party’s alliance with RLD would continue in the civic polls and a decision on seat-sharing would be taken soon.
However, the party could face some irritants in dealing with those associated with Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia.
With Shivpal merging his party following the bonhomie with nephew Akhilesh in the wake of Dimple Yadav’s win in Mainpuri with a record margin, sources said accommodating PSP-L supporters and ticket aspirants for the civic polls could pose a challenge to the SP leadership. In the 2017 civic polls, the SP won 37 chairperson seats in Nagar Palika Parishad and 78 nagar panchayats. The party had failed to win any mayoral seat.