Uttar Pradesh: SP MLCs told to prepare report cards on MLAs

The Samajwadi Party has asked its members of the UP Vidhan Parishad to prepare a confidential report card of sitting MLAs to decide their winnability in the 2017 Assembly polls.

This report card for the sitting SP MLAs will be in addition to internal surveys done by the party at various levels. In these surveys, nearly a 100 SP MLAs are said to be facing a high anti-incumbency factor in their respective constituencies and have bleak chances of winning the polls.

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav has convened a meeting of 64 party MLCs and 63 zila panchayat chairmen on July 9 to get a feedback about the performance of party MLAs. Mr Yadav will hold another round of meeting with senior party leaders before finalising the list for 2017 Assembly polls.

The party has appointed 36 MLCs as observers and they are required to visit the constituencies in their allotted divisions and prepare a report card of the MLAs. They will also interact with the local party workers and members of the frontal organisations in the area before submitting the report within a fortnight”, said a party functionary.

The observers have also been instructed by the party to oversee the progress made by the 156 party candidates whose names were announced by the party three months ago.

The observers will take feedback from these constituencies and party workers in the constituencies in order to give a detailed report to the top leadership of the party.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said that the party has decentralised the responsibilities of fields and different tasks were being assigned to ministers, MLAs, MLCs and Zila Panchayat members as part of the poll preparations. The Samajwadi Party is obviously not taking any chances with the candidates and if some of those whose names have been announced are still found lacking, they will be duly replaced. “Every seat is crucial for us in these elections and we will not take any chances. Sitting MLAs will also face the axe if the feedback from their constituencies is not favourable. However, denial of tickets to sitting legislators will be announced only after the upcoming assembly session in which the government has to get supplementary budget passed for the current fiscal.