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  India   Samajwadi Party decides to strengthen base in rural areas

Samajwadi Party decides to strengthen base in rural areas

Published : Jul 19, 2016, 1:15 am IST
Updated : Jul 19, 2016, 1:15 am IST

Unnerved by the flak it has been facing over the poor law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Samajwadi Party has now decided to strengthen its base in rural areas instead of focussing co

Unnerved by the flak it has been facing over the poor law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Samajwadi Party has now decided to strengthen its base in rural areas instead of focussing completely on urban centres.

The Samajwadi Party initially had its major vote base in the rural interiors, but in the past few years, it has made a conscious effort to shed the tag and emerge as a force to reckon with in urban areas.

The emergence of Akhilesh Yadav helped the party consolidate its position among the urban youth that was mainly attracted by the party’s laptop scheme. Besides, most of the Akhilesh government’s projects, including the IT City and Lucknow metro, cater to urban voters.

“We are going to reinforce our position in the rural areas because the urban voters are being influenced by the misinformation campaign against us. Law and order is not an issue in the rural interiors, but it is being unnecessarily hyped in the urban areas by the Opposition,” said a senior party leader.

The party strategists feel that the law and order issue is a major stumbling block for the ruling party and the situation shows no signs of improvement, allowing the rivals to intensify their attack on the Akhilesh government.

The party also feels that it can counter the BJP by consolidating its rural votes because the BJP’s main vote base lies in the urban areas. Sources said that urban voters tend to get influenced by social media, which has become a tool for misleading propaganda, but rural voters believe only what they see before them. The Samajwadi Party has asked its leaders and workers have been asked to hold “chaupals” in villages and connect with the rural voters without waiting for monsoon to get over.

“Our party workers will be cycling into villages, even spend a night there, and interact with the local people. They will take a feedback about the benefits of various schemes reaching the people and also inform them of the welfare programmes initiated by the chief minister,” said UP minister Arvind Singh Gope.

Senior party leaders, including ministers have also been asked to venture beyond urban constituencies and spend at least one night in a village. They have been asked to move around with minimal security in the rural areas. Sources said that this foray into villages would also allow the SP to strengthen its caste vote base, especially among OBCs.

Location: India, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow