United in INDIA but divided in states: SP pushes ahead with plan to contest Madhya Pradesh polls

SP president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday announced candidates for the two seats of Dhauhani and Chitrangi, both reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs), in Siddi district in the state’s Vindhya region, which is close to the UP border. The party has fielded Vishwanath Singh Gaud Markam from Dhauhani and Shravan Kumar Singh Gaud from Chitrangi.

Last Wednesday, the party announced candidates from the Mehgaon, Bhander (SC), Niwari and Rajnagar seats in the Bundelkhand and Gwalior-Chambal belts, both located near the UP border. Of these six seats, the Congress won three and finished second on two others in the 2018 Assembly elections. The SP, which is considering contesting more seats, will challenge both the Congress and the BJP in these constituencies.

The SP state president in Madhya Pradesh, Ramayan Singh Patel, ruled out the possibility of the party contesting the Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress. “The decision about the alliance in any state is taken by the party’s national leadership. But, as of now, we don’t see any possibility of such an alliance in Madhya Pradesh for the Assembly polls. Our national president has yet to take the final decision in this regard,” Patel told PTI Sunday.

The SP’s move comes at a time when the Congress has announced it won’t field a candidate in the Ghosi Assembly bypoll in UP and extended its support to the SP nominee. UP Congress president Ajay Rai issued the statement of support on Saturday. The SP’s strategy extends to Uttarakhand as well, where it has fielded a candidate in the Bageshwar Assembly bypoll, where the Congress is up against the BJP.

SP in Madhya Pradesh

In 2018, the Congress won Rajnagar, defeating the BJP by 792 votes. The SP candidate got 23,783 votes at the time. The SP came second in Niwari.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led party’s move flies in the face of his recent proposal that the Congress should support the candidates of its regional partners against the BJP in areas where those parties are strong. The Congress is the strongest INDIA partner in Madhya Pradesh and the SP’s position is marginal at best.

Ramayan Singh Patel told The Indian Express, “Akhilesh Yadav ji has asked us to contest across the state. Names of probable candidates have been sent to our top leadership for other seats and the names of our candidates will soon be announced. As far as the INDIA bloc is concerned, it has been formed for the Lok Sabha polls and is ineffective in the Assembly polls, and the SP is free to contest on Assembly seats of its choice.”

Patel said Akhilesh addressed the party’s MP unit in Lucknow in July. At the meeting, he expressed hope that the party would record its best-ever performance in the Assembly elections.

Asked about issues the SP intends to raise in the MP polls, Patel said the party leadership had called for a caste-based census in the state. Besides, a monthly allowance of more than Rs 3,000 for the unemployed youth, he said that a government guarantee for business loans for the youth and a loan waiver for farmers would be among the issues the party would take to the people.

The SP’s best performance in Madhya Pradesh was in 2003, when seven of its candidates were elected. At the time, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was the UP chief minister. In 2018, the SP won just Bijawar in Chhatarpur district, defeating the BJP. The Congress finished third. But after its candidate Rajesh Shukla was expelled for anti-party activities, he joined the BJP.

In 2013, the party did not win a seat. In 2008, the SP won Niwari, with Meera Deepak Yadav getting elected. Meera Deepak will be leading the charge for the SP this time too.

MP Congress spokesperson K K Misra said, “The SP’s influence is negligible in MP. The Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP. The INDIA alliance has been formed for 2024. The Congress has no objection if the SP contests Assembly polls as long as it is not going with the BJP.”

The SP is the third party after the BJP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to declare candidates for the Madhya Pradesh polls. The BJP has released a list of 39 candidates and the BSP has come out with a list of seven nominees.

Though no party won a clear majority in 2018, the Congress emerged as the single-largest party with 114 seats in the 230-member House. The BJP won 109 seats. The Congress formed a coalition government under Kamal Nath with the support of the SP, the BSP, and Independent candidates. But, the government collapsed after 15 months when a section of Congress MLAs, most of them loyal to Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, joined the BJP.

The BJP returned to power in March 2020 with Shivraj Singh Chouhan once again as the chief minister.