Samajwadi Party

Electoral record

The Samajwadi Party is primarily based in Uttar Pradesh State. It has contested Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections around the country, though its successes have been mainly in Uttar Pradesh. In the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh in 2003, the Samajwadi Party gained 7 seats, making it the third largest party in the state. When its candidate won the by-election of Lanji (Balaghat) in 2007, its total tally reached 8. In the 2012 legislative assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, SP registered a landslide victory with a clear majority in the House, thus enabling it to form the government in the state. This was expected to be the fifth term of Mulayam Singh Yadav as Chief Minister of state, but he surprised everyone by selecting his son, Akhilesh Yadav, to be the new chief minister (the youngest ever). It became official on 15 March. It was also the first time that SP was head of the UP government for a full term of 5 years.

Position in state and national politics

The Samajawadi Party was providing outside support to the United Progressive Alliance government till the sixteenth general election, After sixteenth general election its support becomes insignificant as UPA becomes largest alliance. It contested the 2009 general election in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party of Bihar.

In the last general election Samajwadi Party was defeated by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. It is currently thirteenth largest party in parliament. In general elections in 2014, it won only 5 seats, Indian National Congress with 44 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party getting a clear mandate of 282 seats.

In West Bengal, West Bengal Socialist Party of Kiranmoy Nanda had merged with SP. SP has two MLAs in Bihar and one MLA each in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

In April 2014, the Save Family Foundation encouraged voters to support Samajwadi Party or vote none of the above because Samajwadi Party stated that it opposes the alleged misuse of gender bias laws.

Muzzaffarnagar Case

The clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India in August - September 2013, resulted in at least 9 deaths and injured 34 after which an indefinite curfew was imposed. By 17 September, the curfew was lifted from all riot affected areas and the army was also withdrawn. Several people associated with Bharatiya Janta Party including Sangeet Som were accused.

The riot has been described as "the worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent history"; the army's deployment was its first in the state for 20 years. The Supreme court blamed the ruling government of not handling the situation well. In reaction to this, Akhilesh Yadav warned of strict action against those found guilty. He also blamed a political conspiracy behind these riots. He also announced jobs to the kins of the people who were killed during the riots

Proposed merger

In 2014, there was a proposed merger of Samajwadi Party with some other Janata Parivar parties uniting with Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar.

Family feud

Since Akhilesh Yadav became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the Yadav family has been divided into two feuding groups. One of the groups is led by him with the support of his father's cousin, Ram Gopal Yadav. The rival group is led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and supported by his brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, and a friend, Amar Singh. Akhilesh Yadav has fired his uncle twice from his cabinet as it was seen by many as a direct challenge to his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has steadily supported his younger brother Shivpal over him.

Battle in the family fired up when Akhilesh Yadav released a parallel list of 235 candidates for 2017 Uttar Pradesh election. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shivpal Singh Yadav already has released list of 325 candidates few days before.

On 30 December 2016, Mulayam Singh Yadav expelled his son Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav from the party for six years on the grounds of indiscipline but re-inducted within 24 hours after a meet of 200 of the party’s 229 MLAs at Akhilesh residence.

National Convention of January 2017

In a National Convention held on 1 January 2017 called by Ram Gopal Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav was declared the National President of Samajwadi Party. Naresh Chandra Uttam was named as Uttar Pradesh state president of the party.

In the mean time Mulayam Singh Yadav expelled Ram Gopal Yadav for six years for the third time in six months. Expulsion also included vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda and state general secretary Naresh Agarwal were also expelled for attending the convention.

Due to the convention, the party is apparently divided and is headed by two competing presidents. Akhilesh Yadav and his father both are representing themselves as party presidents. However the constitution of the party categorically states that any convention can only be called by its president and if an other member wants a convention to be called, he has to collect the signatures of 40 percent members and submit it to national president. If the president then fails to call the convention that individual member may call for the convention. In this case however, Akhilesh Faction has acted against the party constitution and technically Mulayam Singh Yadav is still the party president.

Election Commission Gets Involved

After the national convention was declared illegal by Mulayam Singh Yadav and further truce talks failed Mulayam Singh along with Amar Singh and Jaya Prada decided to go to the Election Commission to sort out the matter.

The Election Commission gave time till January 9 to submit the related documents to both sides to submit required documents that show support of the party members. The Akhilesh camp submitted affidavits showing notable support for the Chief Minister on January 7 two days before the deadline.

The Election Commission then fixed January 13 as the date for hearing the Samajwadi Party (SP) factions led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav to settle the dispute over control of the party and its election symbol, ‘cycle’. The Election Commission heard both factions for about 4 hours and reserved its order on who gets ownership to the party’s cycle symbol. The Akhilesh faction was represented by senior lawyers Rajeev Dhavan and Kapil Sibal and Mulayam Singh faction was represented by senior advocate and former Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran. Mr. Parasaran argued that the Election Commission lacked jurisdiction to allocate the symbol to one of the factions as there was no split in the party such as SP (Mulayam) and SP (Akhilesh) and there was no splinter group. He also said the meeting called by Ramgopal Yadav on January 1, in which Mr. Akhilesh was elected Samajwadi Party president, was not in accordance with the party’s constitution and therefore, was illegal and unauthorised.

On January 16 the election commission announced its decision and Akhilesh Yadav was declared the rightful owner of his Samajwadi Party's symbol, the cycle.

Notable SP figures