Patna, May 24: The Samajwadi Party (SP) announced its expansion plans for Bihar with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls at a time when chief minister Nitish Kumar has been vocal of expanding his party's base in Uttar Pradesh.
The party announced it would dissolve its barely functional units in Bihar with immediate effect and form a 31-member working committee to look after the party's reorganisation in the state.
An intensive membership drive will be launched in the state on June 1.
"We will first induct active members who can pull in at least 50 members each. A mass membership drive will be launched on July 1 and we expect 5 lakh people to become party members in the first phase. Meanwhile, the working committee will reorganise the state and district units by August 30," the state's party president Devendra Prasad Yadav said.
Devendra, a former Union minister, said: "The party has invited all those who believe in the socialist ideology to join and work for the improvement of Bihar." He revealed that the party would organise a convention on June 5 to coincide with the day of "Total Revolution" and launch " jamir jagao, zulm mitao" (awaken conscience, remove atrocity) campaign from June 11.
"Various SP wings, like the Lohia brigade, youth brigade and women brigade will be present across the state wherever any atrocity is perpetrated on the public. We will protest, agitate, struggle and expand the party in Bihar. Our target is the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Devendra added.
Some of the names in the working committee include former union minister Raghunath Jha, Sobha Kant Mandal, Ganesh Paswan, Surendra Prasad Yadav and retired bureaucrat Pancham Lal.
The SP's move is being seen as a counter to JDU attempts to expand its base in Uttar Pradesh and forge ties with smaller parties like Peace Party of Mohammad Ayub, which has the potential to cut away a chunk of secular votes in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Political experts suggest the votes would be vital and expect the upcoming elections to be a keenly contested one between SP, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), the BJP and the Congress.
Devendra, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha five times, and has been personally chosen by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to lead the party in Bihar, attacked Nitish over his forays into Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala and other states.
"This badhta Bihar (progressing Bihar) slogan of Nitish means a monumental rise in heinous crimes like murder, rape, dacoity, loot, extortion and kidnapping. Even journalists, members of the fourth estate, are not spared. Who will take responsibility of these acts, which are sponsored by the ruling Grand Alliance?" Devendra said.
"He (Nitish) should stop roaming outside Bihar in a bid to make other states free of liquor. He should first make his own state free of crime, drug addiction, floods and droughts. The susashan babu realised that liquor is a bad thing only after promoting it in every nook and corner of the state for 10 years."
He asserted that Nitish's forays in Uttar Pradesh will fail and his party will not be able to open its account in the 2017 Assembly polls.
He pointed out that Nitish was resorting to illogical statements to justify crimes in Bihar by comparing them with crimes in other states.
Devendra also hit out at the RJD stating: "It is not a party but a gang" and stressed on the rumblings within the JDU, the RJD and the Congress.
"People in the Grand Alliance like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Mohammad Taslimuddin and Prabhunath Singh are speaking against Nitish but nobody is paying attention to the person (read RJD chief Lalu Prasad) who is asking them to say such things. It seems that the alliance has taken a direction on which it would soon encounter an eclipse," he added.
Rejecting insinuations that his party may forge an alliance with the JDU in the upcoming polls, Devendra asserted that such a thing would never happen.
