The Samajwadi Party (SP) is eagerly waiting for the first coordination committee meeting of the INDIA alliance, which is scheduled to take place in Delhi on September 13. The party is looking for clarity on whether it will ally with the Congress for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh (MP) assembly election. So far, the SP has announced candidates for seven constituencies in the state. These include Nivari, Rajnagar, Bhander, Mehgaon, Dhauhani, Chitrangi, and Sirmaur. These constituencies are primarily located in the Bundelkhand and Gwalior-Chambal regions of MP, which share borders with Uttar Pradesh. As for the MP election, it is expected to be a contest mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

However, there have been no talks so far between the SP and the Congress regarding the possibility of contesting the MP state assembly election together. The senior leaders of the SP expect clarity to emerge on this issue during the coordination committee meeting in Delhi. Another senior leader mentioned that the SP is open to allying with the Congress in MP. In the previous MP elections held in 2018 and 2008, the SP managed to secure one seat each. The party’s best performance in the state was in 2003 when it won seven seats, marking its best electoral performance outside of Uttar Pradesh until now.

During a recent assembly bypoll in Ghosi, the Congress did not field its candidate and extended support to the SP candidate Sudhakar Singh, who ultimately emerged victorious.

In a related development, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced ten candidates each for the Chhattisgarh and MP elections.

Last year, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav urged party workers to aim at attaining a national status for the party during his appointment as the party’s national president for the next five years. The MP elections are seen as a crucial step for the SP in moving closer to achieving this goal.