SP announces new state executive unit for UP

Lucknow, Aug 14 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced the formation of its new state executive unit for Uttar Pradesh, which was dissolved by party president Akhilesh Yadav after the 2022 Assembly elections.

Senior party member Mohammad Azam Khan's son Abdullah Azam Khan has been made the party's state secretary in the new panel, the party's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhury said.

He also said the new unit will have Irfanul Haq, C.L. Verma, Shyampal Bind and R.S. Bind as its vice presidents, and Rajkumar Mishra as treasurer.

The unit will have 61 secretaries, 48 members and 62 special invitee members besides others, Chaudhury added.

He said the party has taken forward 'PDA' (backwards, Dalits and minorities) in the list while trying to give due importance to the cadre.

Party chief Akhilesh Yadav recently spelt out his ''PDA formula'' for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as a combination of ''Pichde (backward classes), Dalit and Alpasankhyak (minorities)''. He said it would ensure that the BJP bites the dust in the polls next year.

Chaudhury said that the 182-member state executive was announced after it was approved by Yadav.

In what was seen as an attempt to revamp the party after the debacle in the Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha bypolls in its bastions of Rampur and Azamgarh, the SP had dissolved the national, state and district executive bodies of all its organisations last year. Only its state president for Uttar Pradesh Naresh Uttam Patel was retained.