The Samajwadi Party (abbr. SP; translation: Socialist Party, founded 4 October 1992) is a socialist political party in India. It was founded by formerly Janata Dal politicians Mulayam Singh Yadav Beni Prasad Verma Azam Khan and is headquartered in New Delhi. The Samajwadi Party is currently led by former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav after he was chosen as the President at the party's national convention held in 2017.[15]

The Samajwadi Party was one of several parties that emerged when the Janata Dal (People's League) fragmented into several regional parties.[19] The party was founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Beni Prasad Verma in 1992.[20][21] Created just months before the Babri Masjid demolition, the party is said to have played a key role in preventing violence following this event.[22] In West Bengal, the West Bengal Socialist Party of Kiranmoy Nanda merged with the SP in 2010. The Samajwadi Party is now led by former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav after he was chosen as the President at the party's national convention held on 1 January 2017.

Samajwadi Party Logo Png Download

The party have contested Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections around the country, but by far the bulk of its victories have been in Uttar Pradesh. In the 2012 legislative assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, SP registered a landslide victory with a clear majority in the house, thus enabling it to form a government in the state. This was expected to be the fifth term of Mulayam Singh Yadav as Chief Minister of state, but he selected his son, Akhilesh Yadav instead. This became official on 15 March. It was also the first time that SP was head of the UP government for a full term of five years.[23][24] However, the party suffered a landslide defeat in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Election, slumping to only 47 seats as the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to victory.

In the last general election, the Samajwadi Party was defeated by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh though forming alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party.[30] It is currently the thirteenth largest party in parliament.[31] In the general elections of 2019, it won only 5 seats, while the Indian National Congress gained 52 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party obtained a clear mandate with 303 seats.

The Samajwadi Party has a history of being involved in several socio-political controversies, as well as links to the underworld. The party leadership has also faced flak for making insensitive comments on several matters.

In January 2019, a case of forgery was lodged against Azam Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatma and son with respect to the birth certificate of his son Abdullah at a local police station in Uttar Pradesh.[88] However in March 2019, the Allahabad High Court stayed their arrest until the probe was completed by the police.[89] Khan was supported by party leader Akhilesh Yadav who claimed the cases were politically motivated,[90] however in January 2020, the court declared the three, Abdullah and his parents, to be absconders for failing to appear in the court during case hearings.[91][92] Following this, the Enforcement Directorate will be attaching the properties of Khan from the first week of February onward.[93] On 26 February 2020, Khan was sentenced to imprisonment along with his wife and son for forging a fake birth certificate for his son.[94] The Supreme Court granted interim bail on 19 May 2022 in an alleged cheating case. The interim bail will continue till his regular bail plea is decided, clearing the way for his release.[95]On 27 October 2022, an MP-MLA magistrate court Sentenced three-year jail term to Khan finding him guilty of hate speech in a 2019 case.[96]

The Akhilesh faction is the Samajwadi Party and entitled to the party symbol, a bicycle, the election commission ruled Monday, dealing a huge blow to SP founder and patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav ahead of the UP election.

The party has propped non-Yadav OBC leaders such as Swami Prasad Maurya and six leaders from the SC community in leadership roles. Close to 35% of the party leaders inducted in the national executive recently were non-Yadav OBCs.

While building and expanding his party, Mulayam and his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav would frequently ride bicycles. Mulayam continued to ride a bicycle during canvassing even after becoming Chief Minister.

The dispute arose following election of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav as the national president of Samajwadi party at a national convention convened by party member of parliament (MP) Ram Gopal Yadav on 1 January. At the same convention, incumbent president Mulayam Singh Yadav was made the patron of the party.

I have been flooded with media queries about the implications on the forthcoming elections and the role of the election commission. The commission is not concerned with mutual recrimination being played out in the media and the claims and counterclaims. EC does not take suo motu action in such case and comes into the picture only when one party approaches it with its claim.

The commission then starts quasi-judicial proceedings, under Section 15 of The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 by giving a notice to the other faction to give their version. Both parties obviously claim that they are the real party. EC calls on both factions to produce evidence in support of their claim along with affidavits.

The question is what happens in the upcoming election which is due within a few months. An interim arrangement has to be found. Since both the parties will stake claim over the party name and symbol, the symbol may be frozen pending the judgement. In the meantime the two factions will be given an ad hoc name like SP (X) and SP (Y) and an interim symbol will be allotted to each.

Despite the party throwing its weight behind these communities, about half-a-dozen of the prominent OBC leaders of the state have joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in recent times.

The hearing lasted for five and a half hours where the faction-led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father put forth their arguments asking the Commission to allot the party symbol to them.

Speaking to reporters after the conclusion of the meet, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Akhilesh, said, "Samajwadi party led by Akhilesh said that the symbol be allotted to them and on the other hand Mulayam's advocate affirmed that the symbol to be allotted to them. Around five and a half hours the discussions took place."

ED said it has found incriminating documents against Dinesh Kumar Singh, State Secretary of Samajwadi party, UP, during searches and seized them in Bike Bot scam. He was arrested by the sleuths on July 21 and was granted five days custody by a Special court.

Gopalaswami said that while several criteria are considered by the commission, one of the deciding points centres around the constitution of the party and what it specifies about the conduct of meetings and actions taken therein.

According to Section 15 of the party constitution of Samajwadi Party, which specifies the role of the national executive, the power to give directions to various units would remain with this unit. Sub-points 10 and 11 also state that the meeting of the national executive would be convened by the president (which is Mulayam Singh Yadav) and that the leader of the legislative group, which in this case is chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, would be an ex-officio member of this panel.

According to the party constitution, therefore, the party supremo definitely sits on a higher pedestal in the scheme of things. However, political analysts believe at a time of a split in a party, it is usually the voice of the public which prevails.

The Samajwadi Party, with 36 members of the Lok Sabha, fromthis site:

The party flag is of red and green. Two horizontal stripes - the upper two-thirds portion is red while the lower one-third portion is green. The bicycle emblem in the centre of the red stripe completes the party flag.

Knut A. Berg, 20 October 2004

The photo shown here is a variant of the flag of Samajwadi Party. It is modelled on the standard party flag, but has some additions. On the top is the party name written in Devanagari script. In the middle is the photo of the party leader, Mulayalam Singh Yadav, and the party election symbol, a bicycle. On the bottom is the text "Mulayalamsingh Yadav Zindabad" (Long live Mulayalamsingh Yadav) in Devanagari. The standard party flag is 2/3 red and 1/3 green with a white bicycle in the middle.

J.A. Sommansson, 26 January 2005

Now that the Assembly elections are just around the corner, the EC might decide on freezing the symbol and both the parties might have to pick up new symbols and party names. But before that to happen, the split in the party has to get confirmed.

This might also affect the fate of Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh since as per a 2011 literacy rate census, Uttar Pradesh is the 8th lowest literacy rate in India. With a large chunk of people still depending on party names and symbols to vote, taking up a new symbol and party name will highly influence the future of Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.

If the split is in a registered but unrecognised party, the EC typically counsels the warring divisions to resolve their differences internally or to approach the court. EC might also ask the warring factions to pick up other symbols and names for the respective parties. The first case on such matter was of the Congress split case, in which the EC had suspended the symbol and given two separate symbols to the two groups.

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