SP in reactivation mode with VCs, rebuilding & protests
LUCKNOW The Samajwadi Party (SP) is slowly gearing up its political activities and simultaneously preparing for the UP assembly elections due in 2022.
After a hiatus of two months due to the lockdown, party president Akhilesh Yadav has restarted establishing contact with the party’s outfits in the districts and reorganising the district units. The party has also started taking to the streets in the form of protests.
On June 2, Akhilesh began doing video conferencing with party leaders, on June 10 the party did organisational restructuring for the assembly polls and appointed new district presidents in nine districts. On June 11, the party expelled two members from its frontal organisations and last week it again declared over halfa-dozen party leaders as spokespersons. The SP had disbanded its team of media spokesperson the day after 2019 Lok Sabha polls results were declared.
“Yes, our party has resumed political activities, although it was active since Lockdown-1 with all district units helping people with food and ration. Now, the party president has begun direct contact and discussions with party units across the state through video and WhatsApp calling,” said former SP minister and party’s state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.
Akhilesh started reviews and feedback gathering from districts on June 3 and since then had discussions with leaders and officebearers in Ayodhya, Bijnore, Mahoba, Kannauj, Gonda, Kanpur, Chandauli, Azamgarh, Sidharthnagar, Farrukhabad, Sant Kabir Nagar, Agra, Ghazipur, Barabanki, and Varanasi.
The interactions revolved around intensifying poll preparations for the assembly elections, consolidating respective district units right up to booth level and
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reorganisation of booth committees, Chaudhary said.
Akhilesh is now asking the party outfit to “expose the BJP’s lies” by beginning to tell people that first it was BJP government’s demonetization; then GST crippled the nation and whatever little was left of the economy was crushed by the unplanned and dictatorial lockdowns, he said.
The party has also resumed protests. On June 8, the Ghaziabad district president Haji Rashid Malik, and his team protested on their bicycles at the gate of the closed factory of a prominent bicycle brand in Ghaziabad. The protestors then sent a memorandum to the UP governor seeking reopening of the factory. And for last six days, a former SP MLA in Kanpur is sitting on a dharna there over drinking water problem. “In future our protests would increase . Except for Team-11 meetings every day, the government is doing nothing for the people. . We are waiting for the next assembly session, where we will effectively corner the government,” Chaudhary said.
Pawan Pandey, former Ayodhya MLA with whom Akhilesh spoke on Tuesday through video call, said: “I told him that we are always among people, as he had asked, since Lockdown-1. It is people like us that are helping the needy and migrants; the government is only playing number games by quoting statistics. .”