Samajwadi Party

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Samajwadi Party (Socialist Party) is a political party in India. It describes itself as a democratic socialist party. It was founded on 4 October 1992. It is one of several parties that emerged when the Janata Dal ("People's Party), India's primary opposition party prior to the BJP, was fragmented into several regional parties. Samajwadi Party is led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party is primarily based in Uttar Pradesh, where it bases its support largely on OBCs (Other Backward Castes) and Muslims, particularly Mulayam Singh Yadav's own Yadav caste. It has made strong attempts to gain national status, by contesting Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections around the country, but it has been unsuccessful thus far.

In the 14th Lok Sabha, it currently has 38 members, and is the fourth largest party in that house, its best ever tally. Besides 36 members from Uttar Pradesh, it won one seat from Uttranchal (formerly part of U.P.). In 2005, former Karnataka Chief Minister Bangarappa resigned from the BJP to join the Samajwadi Party. He successfully held on to his Lok Sabha seat from Shimoga under a new party ticket.

[edit] Allies

At present, the Samajwadi Party's main ally is the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a small party which is supporting its government in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress is also providing vital support to that government, and likewise, the Samajwadi Party is providing outside support to the minority Manmohan Singh government at the Centre. Despite this, there is deep-seated public enmity between the two parties. This was evident during the March 2006 political fall-out which followed the expulsion of Samajwadi Party parliamentarian Jaya Bachchan on grounds of holding an "office of profit." SP leaders blamed the move on the Congress high-command, and tensions have increased since then, although neither has revoked its support.

The S.P. has been also known to be friendly with the BJP, mostly because their primary enemy is common: Mayawati, leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, who has emerged as a major political force in the state. The installation of Mulayam Singh Yadav's government in 2003 was widely-perceived to be the result of such a friendly agreement. Given their drastically different vote-bank's, they never publicly align.

[edit] List of politicians from Samajwadi Party

• Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh
• Amar Singh
• Deepnarayan Singh (Deepak Yadav), Jhansi UP, National President Samajwadi Party (Lohiyawahini
• S. Bangarappa , former chief minister of [[Karnataka

[edit] External link

• Samajwadi Party web site