New DelhiSeptember 22, 2025 04:34 PM IST
First published on: Sep 22, 2025 at 04:34 PM IST
In what could be seen as a boost to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Opposition INDIA bloc ahead of the Assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has decided to appoint a state president and office-bearers for its Bihar unit after an eight-year hiatus.
Sources said the decision was taken after SP leaders from Bihar met party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and requested him to appoint a state president and office-bearers to ensure better coordination among INDIA bloc allies in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Following the meeting, former SP MLC Kashinath Yadav met party leaders in Patna last week and shortlisted names for the state president’s post. “We need a state president there (in Bihar) to run the organisation. Akhilesh had sent me to Patna and feels the Bihar president can be appointed if there is consensus. The workers too agree with his views and said they would work under the leadership of whoever is chosen to lead the party,” Kashinath said, adding he would soon hand over the list of interested candidates to Akhilesh.
According to sources, eight leaders have expressed interest in helming the party’s affairs in Bihar. Devender Yadav was the last SP Bihar president, a post which has been lying vacant since 2017.
SP sources said that the party’s Bihar unit would make arrangements for the campaigns of Akhilesh and other party MPs, who are likely to visit the state to extend support to the RJD.
“SP should have its own people when Akhilesh and other leaders come to send out a message that the party is influential among the people of Bihar and is supporting the Mahagathbandhan with its full strength. Only a state president can mobilise workers,” a senior SP leader said, adding that leaders from Uttar Pradesh are set to travel mostly in the Seemanchal region.
After it registered its best-ever performance in last year’s Lok Sabha polls, winning 37 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats, the appointment of the Bihar chief is being seen as part of the party’s bid to expand its organisational base outside its home state.
Owing to the support that the party receives from the Yadavs – which constitute 14.3% of Bihar’s population – the SP has contested Assembly elections in the past.
While it supported the RJD and stayed away from the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls as well as the 2020 Assembly elections, it contested 135 of the 243 seats in 2015 but failed to win any seats. In 2010 too, it drew a blank despite contesting 146 seats.
The SP last won an Assembly seat in Bihar in 2005, when two of its candidates – from Phulparas and Thakurganj – won the polls. It had won four seats in the February 2005 elections.