Samajwadi Party to contest 51 seats

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, January 10

The Samajwadi Party (SP) will field candidates in 51 of the 70 seats in the Assembly elections. The selection of candidates and ticket allocation is in the last phase, said SP state secretary Sonal Prince while speaking with mediapersons here today.

The party would field candidates in all 11 seats in Haridwar district which had been the traditional stronghold of the party, he added.

Sonal said the party was in a strong position in at least three or four seats in the district as voters view it as the best alternative to both Congress and BJP that had been indulging in corruption and ill-governance.

“Even the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal failed to live up to the expectations of people. Now, the Samajwadi Party is in much stronger position both in plains and hill districts of the state. The Samajwadi Party doesn’t differentiate between hilly areas and plains or on the basis of religion and sect, though other parties resort to vote bank politics and apply such divisive tactics to gain power,” he said.

On the impact of the family drama in the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Sonal blamed the BJP for creating fissures in the party and the first family of Uttar Pradesh. “Mulayam Singh Yadav had sown the seeds of the Samajwadi Party but now in the past five years Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had made it grow into a tree. The Akhilesh-led SP government has done mass development work and given corruption-free governance,” he added.

“People will again vote Akhilesh to power in Uttar Pradesh and his influence is such that even in Uttarakhand people talk highly of him. The Samajwadi Party candidates in Uttarkahand will also benefit from his able governance,” Sonal said.

State party spokesperson Kazi Chand said they had also send a communiqué to Akhilesh Yadav, his wife Dimple Yadav, who is Kannauj MP, and Aparna Yadav to hold election rallies in Uttarakhand as both Dimple and Aparna hail from Garhwal.

Activists of other political parties joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of both state party office-bearers.