SP gets organisational make-over to face BJP challenge head-on

These in-charges have been directed to create a new organisational structure of zonal units, with an in-charge for each zone. There will be at least six zones in each Assembly segment, with each zone divided into six sectors. Each sector unit will oversee 10-12 booth units. During fieldwork, these Lok Sabha in-charges will also have to interact with the workers and the public in villages and urban areas.

The in-charges have to complete their task by June 5 so that the training camps can be started. The camps will be organised in groups of youth workers and local leaders from two constituencies each. “Akhilesh Yadav and other senior leaders will educate the workers on party ideology, failure of the BJP government in governance, and so on,” said a party leader.

On the decision to develop the new organisational structure, former minister and Kairana Lok Sabha in-charge Sudhir Panwar said, “SP is a mass-based party. But in the prevailing political scenario, it needs a structure to communicate its ideology and opinion on political matters, and raise awareness of the workers about the challenges. Hence, constituency in-charges have been appointed to build booth committees and form the zonal structures.”

Another party leader said the SP is a mass-based party that doesn’t make any distinction between voters and has remained inclusive irrespective of religion, caste, gender or economic status. “Various factors — like asymmetric treatment of some political parties by the media, open and blatant use of religion in politics, and saffronisation of institutions, have posed challenges for a mass-based party like the SP. Under the changed political landscape of UP. There is a need for a more cohesive organisational structure, and the SP is working on it,” he said.

Among the Lok Sabha constituencies where such in-charges have been appointed are Amethi and Rae Bareli, where the SP gave a “walkover” to the Congress in previous Lok Sabha elections. MLA Indrajeet Saroj is in charge of Rae Bareli as well as Kaushambi and Pratapgarh. In Amethi, the party has deployed former MLCs Sunil Sajan and Anand Bhadauria, and former MLA Arun Verma.

Senior party MLA and a Dalit face Awdhesh Prasad is in charge of Ayodhya while MLA Lalji Verma has been given the responsibility of four constituencies, including Azamgarh, from where Akhilesh Yadav was elected in 2019 but which the party lost to the BJP in a bypoll last year.

The party is also preparing to contest the Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency in Uttarakhand, where former MLA Kiran Pal Kashyap has been named the in-charge.

“Apart from looking after the formation of the organisational units, we are also meeting the new workers, putting up party flags at their homes and getting photographs clicked with them, to raise their morale and give a boost to organisational activities,” said former minister R K Chaudhary, who is in charge of the Mishrikh and Hardoi Lok Sabha constituencies.

A party leader, who chose to remain anonymous, said the Lok Sabha in-charges were appointed to give more depth to the organisation till the booth level on the lines of a cadre-based party. “We will retain our mass-based character, but will also have an organisational structure like a cadre-based party, making the SP somewhat of a hybrid party that is mass-based in ideology and philosophy, but with an organisation like a cadre-based party,” he said.

Another party leader said, “As a mass-based party, the SP’s strength is the dedicated Yadav vote bank, besides similar voters among some other OBC castes and Muslims. These people vote for the SP by trusting its socialist ideology and its top leadership. But the BJP and the BSP have organisational structures at various levels, from booth to state, which help them better communicate the party’s message to every voter. The BJP uses this structure to mop up floating votes and compensate for anti-incumbency. The SP felt the need for such a structure to use it in its fight against the BJP.”