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Samata Party
AbbreviationSAP
PresidentUday Mandal[1]
FounderGeorge Fernandes and Nitish Kumar
Founded1994
Split fromJanata Dal
IdeologySocialism
ECI StatusUnrecognised[2]
AllianceNational Democratic Alliance(1996 - 2003)
Seats in Lok Sabha
0 / 543
Seats in Rajya Sabha
0 / 245
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
samataparty.org

The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, is now being led by Uday Mandal as its National President.[3][4] Samata Party once launched Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar.[5] It was an offshoot of the Janata Dal, with the alleged casteism of the parent party being the reason given for the split.[6] The party has socialist leanings; at one point, it wielded considerable political and social influence in North India, particularly in Bihar. In 2003, most Samata Party members joined Janata Dal (United). Only a faction led by MP Brahmanand Mandal remained in the Samata party and continued to use the party name and symbols.[7][8]

History

Samata Party President Mr. Uday Mandal holding 'Mashal' in his hand.

In the general elections of 1996, the Samata Party formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janta Party and won eight seats, six of which were in Bihar and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. Before the election, the party was largely rooted only in Bihar. In the 1998 general elections, again in alliance with Bharatiya Janta Party, it won twelve seats, ten from Bihar and two from Uttar Pradesh.

In March 2000, Nitish Kumar was elected leader of the NDA for Chief Minister of Bihar post. On 3 March, he was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time at the behest of the Vajpayee Government in the center. NDA and allies had 151 MLA whereas Lalu Prasad Yadav had 159 MLA in the 324-member house. Both alliances were less than the majority mark, 163. Nithish resigned because he could not prove his numbers in the house.[9][10]

Radhabinod Koijam became the second chief minister from Samata Party when was sworn in as Chief Minister of Manipur on 15 February 2001.[11] The government was, however, short-lived. The coalition he was leading fell in May of the same year.[12][13]

In the 1999 Loksabha election, Samata Party was in an informal alliance with the Lok Shakti and the Janata Dal(U). A proposal to merge the three into a single party was called off in January 2000 by George Fernandes who said the party would contest in the 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly election on its own.[14]

2003 Split and merger with JD (U)

In October 2003, George Fernandes, the president of the Samata Party, announced that the party would be completely merging with the Janata Dal (United).[15] The Janata Dal (United) was part of the ruling coalition in the National Democratic Alliance.

Samata Party Member of parliament (Lok Sabha) Brahmanand Mandal was opposed to the merger split with the other members. Mandal was the leader of the minority faction opposing the merger. Since all the members did not support the official merge, and Brahmanand's faction challenged the merger of the party in front of ECI, the merger wasn't officially recognized by the Election Commission of India. The Election Commission of India decided that the merger was not technically complete and so a faction was allowed to function under the Samata Party name.[8]

Party leader Sharad Yadav, said that the ECI decision would have no effect on his merger plans as all candidates of Samata Party would be contesting the upcoming 2004 Lok Sabha election as candidate of Janata Dal United on the election symbol of Arrow.[7]

Most members of the party merged with JDU as proposed however a small faction of Samata Party continued using the name Samata party under the leadership of Brahmanand Mandal.[16]

Samata Party after 2004

In the 2009 general elections for the 14th Lok Sabha (2009-2014), it had contested in 11 seats and was defeated in all of them. It had secured a total of 31324 votes which was only 0.02 percent of the total number of votes cast in that state.[17]

For the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the Samata Party decided to forgo any alliance, stating that it would not ally with the Congress.[18] Due to the departure of all the bigwigs from the Samata Party to Janata Dal (United), the party started shrinking gradually. Due to its poor election performance, it began to lose popularity and was almost on the verge of closure. In 2020, the leadership of the party was given to Uday Mandal, he started restructuring it.[19]


Samata Party Press Conference at Patna
Samata Party Rally at Patna
George Fernandes death anniversary by Samata Party

Fernandes return in Samata Party in 2007

In 2007, George Fernandes left JD(U) and joined Samata Party along with their supporters, JD(U) general secretary and spokesman Shiv Kumar and senior leader Aneel Hegde, several other leaders and workers from various states left the JD(U) to join the Samata Party on the occasion. These included the Gujarat party unit president Praveensinh Jadeja, Andhra Pradesh unit chief Narasimha Reddy, Uttarakhand party chief Anurag Kumar and suspended party MLA from Bihar Chhedi Paswan. Also present on the occasion was former MP Brahmanand Mandal, the current president of Samata Party who had refused to join the JD(U) at the time of merger.[20][21]

Ideology

The party follows a socialist ideology; in particular, that of Ram Manohar Lohia.[22]

Electoral performances

Lok Sabha (Lower House)

Lok Sabha Term Indian
General Election 		Seats
contested 		Seats
won 		% of
votes 		% of votes in
seats contested
11th Lok Sabha 1996 81 8 72,56,086 2.2%
12th Lok Sabha 1998 57 12 64,91,639 1.8%
14th Lok Sabha 2004 40 0 2,01,276 0.1%
15th Lok Sabha 2009 11 0 0.0%
16th Lok Sabha 2014 10 0 0.0%

Vidhan Sabha (Lower House)

Vidhan Sabha Term State
elections 		Seats
contested 		Seats
won 		% of
votes 		Party Votes
11th Assembly Bihar 1995 310 7 24,40,275 7.1%
12th Assembly Bihar 2000 120 34 32,05,746 8.7%
7th Assembly Manipur 1995 23 2 70,887 6.2%
8th Assembly Manipur 2000 36 1 84,215 6.7%
9th Assembly Manipur 2005 31 3 1,09,912 8.3%
Nagaland 2003 4 1 10,456 1.2%

List of chief ministers

No Name
Constituency 		Term of office Tenure length Party State Assembly
1 Nitish Kumar 3 March 2000 10 March 2000 7 days Samata Party Bihar 12th Assembly
2 Radhabinod Koijam 15 February 2001 1 June 2001 106 days Samata Party Manipur 8th Assembly

Symbol crisis

The Election Commission of India allotted the "Flaming Torch" symbol to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Samata Party raise objection against it.[23] A petition filed in Delhi High Court, Samata Party through Uday Kr Mandal its President vs Election Commission of India.[24][25] A single bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula dismissed the case, Samata party appeal in double bench of Judges.[26] Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma & Justice Subramontium Prasad again dismissed that appeal.[27][28][29] In Uttar Pradesh Local Body Election 2022, Samata Party got their symbol, now the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) & Samata Party both have the "Flaming Torch or Mashal".[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Dispute over new symbol of Uddhav Shiv Sena, Samata Party files complaint". 12 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Samata Party delegation meets Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde to seek help in getting back 'flaming torch' symbol from Thackeray faction". The Hindu. 22 February 2023. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  3. ^ Dash, Nivedita; News, India TV (12 July 2023). "From Mulayam Singh's SP to George Fernandes' Samata Party: List of splits in Janata Dal | EXPLAINED". www.indiatvnews.com. Retrieved 21 December 2023. ((cite web)): |last2= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ "Delhi HC dismisses Samata Party plea against 'flaming torch' symbol allotment". The Indian Express. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  5. ^ "'Flaming Torch' Election Symbol: A Look Back At Samata Party And Nitish Kumar's Ascension To Bihar CM". www.outlookindia.com/. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  6. ^ "Samata Party". Indian Elections. Archived from the original on 1 June 2004.
  7. ^ a b "BBCHindi". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  8. ^ a b "EC rejects merger of JD-U, Samata Party". rediff.com. 20 March 2004. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  9. ^ Kumar, Abhay (24 November 2019). "March 2000: When Nitish quit as CM, before floor test". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  10. ^ Dasgupta, Swapan (20 March 2000). "Nitish Kumar's government in Bihar not outvoted as much as outmanoeuvred by Laloo Yadav". India Today. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  11. ^ "Koijam sworn in Manipur CM". Rediff. PTI. 15 February 2001. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  12. ^ Himal South Asian-August-2000 Archived 7 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Message from Manipur". The Tribune. Chandigarh, India. 2 June 2001. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  14. ^ "Samata Party breaks away from JD (U)". Rediff. UNI. 6 January 2000. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  15. ^ Gargi Parsai (31 October 2003). "Fernandes to head Janata Dal (United)". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012.
  16. ^ "EC recognises old Samata Party"[usurped], The Hindu (Sunday, 21 March 2004)
  17. ^ "PERFORMANCE OF GENERAL ELECTIONS - INDIA, 2009 - REGISTERED (UNRECOGNISED) PARTIES & INDEPENDENTS" (PDF). Election Commission of India. 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 September 2012.
  18. ^ "कांग्रेस से गठबंधन नहीं करेगी समता पार्टी 10237767". Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  19. ^ "दिल्ली HC ने शिवसेना धड़े को मशाल चुनाव चिह्न आवंटित किए जाने के खिलाफ समता पार्टी की याचिका खारिज की". Dainik Jagran (in Hindi). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  20. ^ "Fernandes' supporters bid to revive Samata". Hindustan Times. 22 January 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  21. ^ "George may attend Samata convention". The Indian Express. 14 February 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  22. ^ "Samata Party". Samata Party. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  23. ^ "Dispute over new symbol of Uddhav Shiv Sena, Samata Party files complaint". Hindustan Times. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  24. ^ "Samata Party to move Delhi HC against Thackeray faction's 'flaming torch'". Hindustan Times. 14 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  25. ^ Sharma, Unnati (15 October 2022). "Samata Party moves Delhi HC against mashaal symbol for Uddhav Sena, claims it as own". ThePrint. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  26. ^ "ठाकरे गटाच्या चिन्हाला आव्हान; दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालयात याचिका". LOKMAT (in Marathi). 15 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  27. ^ "Delhi HC rejects Samata Party's plea challenging ECI's allotment of 'Flaming Torch' to Thackeray faction". ANI News. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  28. ^ "Delhi HC Rejects Plea by Samata Party Against Flaming Torch Election Symbol to Sena Faction". News18. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  29. ^ "Delhi HC dismisses Samata Party appeal challenging ECI decision on allotment of symbol 'Flaming Torch'". ANI News. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  30. ^ Sharma, Unnati (3 December 2022). "After reclaiming mashaal for UP civic polls, Samata Party says will move SC for old symbol". ThePrint. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
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