Stung by Lok Sabha Poll Debacle, Samajwadi Party Likely to Replace Leaders With New Faces

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party, which contested on 37 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, is all set to undergo an organisational overhaul following the drubbing the party faced. According to sources, a few of the party’s senior and regional leaders are likely to be changed as the top brass remains upset over the dismal results. The party had fought the elections along with alliance partners – Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Sources in SP suggest that several district presidents along with some senior leaders are likely to be removed from their positions. It had also been suggested that work is underway to identify new faces and leaders, who will be entrusted with the task to strengthen the party in several districts for the 2022 state Assembly polls.

“The party leadership is unhappy over the Lok Sabha results. Since the election result day, non-stop meetings have been held to fix responsibility and identify new faces,” a senior SP leader told News18.

Sources have also suggested that SP state president, Naresh Uttam Patel, might also be replaced by Om Prakash Singh.

Since the election results were announced on May 23, SP dissolved its panellists and asked its party leaders to refrain from giving any statements in the media. The action came after Samajwadi Party managed to win just five seats out of 37 that it was contesting on. The drubbing saw Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav losing their seats to the BJP.

Unlike this year, in 2014 despite the 'Modi wave', SP had managed to retain its five Lok Sabha seats. At the time, Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and Akshay Yadav had managed to hold onto their seats.

Five years on, despite the alliance with BSP on 38 seats and with RLD on three seats, SP won only the five seats of Azamgarh, from where Akhilesh himself was contesting, Mainpuri from where Mulayam Singh Yadav was contesting, Moradabad from where ST Hasan was contesting, Rampur from where Azam Khan was contesting and Sambhal from where Shafiq Ur Rehman Barq was contesting.