Date:07/07/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/07/stories/2003070704341100.htm

National

SP national executive meets today

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 6. The Samajwadi Party is holding a meeting of its national executive here tomorrow in the backdrop of speculation of early Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections to five States scheduled later this year.

The party plans to keep itself in battle-ready shape in anticipation that the ruling coalition may choose to advance the general elections, due October next year, the senior party leader, Ramgopal Yadav, indicated here.

Ever since the party suffered a setback in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections last February, the SP leadership has engaged itself in the task of keeping up pressure on the State's BSP-BJP ruling coalition.

Having been unsuccessful in bringing down the Mayawati-led Government, the SP would have to redraw its strategy and prepare for the battle ahead.

The reversal in the latest move notwithstanding, the party finds itself in greater company, with the Congress and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal joining hands with the party.

For the first time since the crisis in Uttar Pradesh came to the fore last year, the Congress decided to be on the side of the SP, indicating a thaw in their relations.

The SP interest is largely restricted to Uttar Pradesh where the party needs to adopt a course and take on the challenge in the form of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, has made it clear that the party would have an alliance with the BJP in the State during the next Lok Sabha elections. If the result of the recent Chiraigoan Assembly by-election is any indication, the combined effort has proved effective as it resulted in the BSP wresting the seat from the SP.

The result, as Ms. Mayawati claimed, also debunked the theory floated by Opposition that the Thakurs had drifted away from her party.

The BSP fielded a candidate from the upper caste as was the case in the earlier byelection to Gauriganj. Another bypoll earlier was won by the BSP's Muslim candidate. These signals have to be interpreted by the SP leadership before redrawing its strategy.