“Will Strongly Contest Election In Five State” Samajwadi Party Spokesperson (image-twitter/abbashaiderIND)

Abbas Haider, Samajwadi Party”s (SP) spokesperson, said on Monday that SP will strongly contest the elections in five states- Telangana, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Mizoram, with an aim to remove BJP from power. He also stated that Samajwadi Party will contest in over a dozen seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party has contested elections before and even won eight seats, he added while speaking to PTI. Similarly, last week, on October 1, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav also pushed for an alliance with Congress for the coming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls to win over the BJP. Both the parties had friction regarding their interests, so the alliance for seat sharing is uncertain.

While, SP had some presence in some areas of Madhya Pradesh adjoining Uttar Pradesh and had won seven seats in 2003 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, four seats in the 1998 polls, one seat in 2008 and 2018 Assembly polls each.

Samajwadi Party earlier declared that they will be contesting elections in Madhya Pradesh this year, with the objective being to drive a hard bargain in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.

The SP is the third party after the BJP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to declare candidates for the Madhya Pradesh polls. The BJP has released a list of 39 candidates and BSP has come out with a list of seven nominees.

The upcoming Madhya Pradesh polls will see a fierce contest between the Congress and the ruling BJP, along with four other state assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Meghalaya.

Poll schedules for the five states were announced on Monday. Madhya Pradesh will go to booths on November 17, 2023, and the counting of votes will be conducted on December 3.