Prepping for ’24, Akhilesh opens direct line with grassroots leaders, takes leaf out of BJP playbook

With the Samajwadi Party joining INDIA – the alliance of 26 Opposition parties that met in Bengaluru in Karnataka earlier this week – the Congress, JD(U) and RJD could also become a part of this broad-spectrum alliance in UP. However, the UP unit of the Congress is wary of an alliance with the SP and has already voiced its opinion to the party’s central leadership.

Nonetheless, the SP president Akhilesh Yadav has started the exercise of candidates’ selection and has been directly interacting with the party functionaries and elected representatives of each Lok Sabha constituency about the local social equation and possible winnable candidates.

Sources in the SP that the former chief minister is also taking the opinions of the party’s district units about the existing allies and other parties, which could join the alliance in the future.

“Akhilesh is holding separate meetings for each Lok Sabha constituency and has been involving his uncle and party national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav. UP state unit chief Naresh Uttam also attends these meetings. After taking feedback from the local leaders and workers, Akhilesh and Shivpal guide them on how to strengthen the organisation on the ground,” an SP leader said, adding so far, the party chief has held meetings of over a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies, including Azamgarh, Bareilly, and Ghosi.

During the meeting for the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat, which the party lost during the bypolls last year after Akhilesh vacated the seat to retain the Assembly membership, sources said he asked local district unit leaders to list the reasons for the party’s defeat. Akhilesh, sources said, also asked the local leaders to lay out a strategy to win the seat again next year.

“This is for the first time when the party’s national president is having a direct dialogue with the leaders at the districts and taking their opinion in chalking out the strategy for the election, alliance, and selection of candidates. In the past, decisions on alliances and candidates were decided by the top leadership. District unit presidents were consulted only for the candidate’s name. This time, district general secretaries, party’s sitting and former MLAs, candidates who contested the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, chairpersons of local bodies and zila panchayats are also being invited to the meeting and their opinions are being sought,” said a district unit president from east UP who attended one such meeting, chaired by Akhilesh.

Meanwhile, taking a leaf out of the rival BJP’s election playbook, the SP has assigned the task of reaching out to at least 100 to 120 voters by every member of the booth committees.

Recently, the party had constituted 10-member committees in every booth in the state along with sector units, which supervised the working of 10 to 12 booth committees, and zonal units. The party also streamlined the communication from the grassroots to the party’s top leadership with the booth committee presidents being told to report to the

district unit president, who in turn would report to the state unit chief.

“For the first time, each booth committee member has been asked to stay in touch with over 100 to 120 voters, interact with them, tell them about achievements and public welfare schemes of the SP governments in the past, and the failures of the incumbent BJP governments at the state and the Centre. This is going to be a crucial step for connecting the party with the people,” a senior SP leader said.

The SP’s new way of functioning is similar to that of the BJP, which has appointed a panna pramukh for every 60 voters. The panna pramukhs have been given the responsibility of regularly meeting the voters and ensuring that they turn up at the polling booths to cast votes on election day.  Also, the BJP state headquarters directly contact the booth committees and maintain dialogue with them and inquire about the progress in voters’ outreach campaigns and organisational activities.

For the Samajwadi Party, the next year’s Lok Sabha elections is crucial since the party has been on a losing wicket for close to a decade. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party won only 5 of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh– it was in power in the state then. Three years later, the SP lost power in the state with the BJP winning the Assembly elections with a thumping majority. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the party went into the polls in alliance with the BSP but managed to win only 5 seats, while Mayawati’s party won 10. At present, the SP has only three MPs in Lok Sabha after losing Rampur and Azamgarh to the BJP in bypolls last year. In the last year’s Assembly elections, the SP failed to unseat the BJP from power despite forming a rainbow coalition of smaller parties with varied social bases.

“We are not going to leave any chance to defeat the BJP this time (2024 polls). The party has assigned booth committees important tasks. They have also been told to keep a watch on the electoral rolls updation and inform senior leaders if the name of any genuine voter is deleted from the list,” said SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.

Two months ago, the SP had appointed in-charge for each Lok Sabha constituency to re-constitute the booth committees by inducting new workers in place of inactive workers and those who joined other parties. Along with a president, each booth committee also has two co-in charges.

Last month, the party formed zonal units with each Assembly segment being divided into at least six zones and each zone, in turn, being divided into six sectors with each sector presiding over 10-12 booth units.

“With this new approach, the party will reach out to floating voters who play a decisive role in each election. Such voters vote on the prevailing social and economic issue and hence our booth committees will play a pivotal role,” said another SP leader.