Akhilesh prepares to revamp Samajwadi Party

The Samajwadi Party is preparing for a major revamp of its party organisation in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Assembly by-elections.

The party is preparing to give greater representation to youth and repose more faith in veteran leaders. It also plans to focus on bigger responsibilities to leaders from OBC and Dalit sections of society.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has already dissolved all party units in the state and Delhi and also the frontal organisations. He wants to ensure a vibrant organisation before the by-elections since, this time, the SP will also be confronted by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the bypolls.  In the 2018 by-elections, the BSP had supported the SP.

"Akhilesh is taking the bypolls very seriously because this is an opportunity for the SP to regain its credibility. Though at present the party has only one seat, Rampur, where the bypolls are to be held but we want to wrest more seats from the BJP," said a senior SP leader.

Senior party leaders will be assigned the responsibility of supervising the campaign in the 13 Assembly segments, which will be going to polls. Some of the leaders may also be given organisational responsibilities.

Former SP minister Ravidas Mehrotra admitted: "This is a time for struggle for the party. We need committed leaders to fight against the prevailing circumstances. We are confident that the new organisation will strike a balance between the young and the  old."

Akhilesh Yadav faces the uphill challenge of regaining Samajwadi Party's lost ground, after a series of his decisions went awry. The alliance with the Congress in the 2017 Assembly elections brought the SP strength in the 403-member UP Assembly down to 47, while the alliance with the BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections left the party with just five seats -- three less than what it earlier had. The BSP also snapped its alliance with the SP after the polls.