Samajwadi Party blames sabotage for defeat

Lucknow: Internal sabotage, an impression of lack of governance by the Akhilesh Yadav government, the policy of Muslim appeasement and frequent changes of candidates were held as key factors responsible for the Samajwadi Party debacle in Uttar Pradesh.

SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav called a meeting of all SP LS candidates on Monday to discuss why it did so badly. Most candidates said they faced a lot of resistance from SP MLAs or ministers.

“Candidates from Jaunpur, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Ghazipur, Bhad-ohi, Phulpur, Lucknow, Sambhal and Mahara-jganj told the leadership that local SP MLAs and ministers didn’t cooperate with them and even worked against them in some cases. We noted th-ese complaints, and will take stern action after verifying them,” a senior SP leader said.

The performance of some SP ministers also led to the defeat of candidates in their constituencies. This was most pronounced in Azamgarh, where Mulayam Singh Yadav was himself a candidate. The unpopularity of local ministers made his victory difficult.

Many SP candidates felt frequent changes of candidates increased factional wars in constituencies and led to the par-ty’s defeat. Some blamed officials (read poor governance of the SP gover-nment) for their defeat. They said the state mac-hinery worked in favour of their rivals and they could do little about it.