Samta Party

For other uses, see Samata (disambiguation).

Samta Party
Abbreviation	SAP
Chairperson	Brahmanand Mandal [1]
General Secretary	Uday Mandal
Founder	George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar
Founded	1994
Split from	Janata Dal
Ideology	Socialism
ECI Status	State Party
Seats in  Lok Sabha	0/543
Seats in  Rajya Sabha	0 / 245
Election symbol
Politics of India Political parties Elections

The Samta Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar. It was an offshoot of the Janata Dal, with the alleged casteism of the parent party being the reason given for the split. ^[2] The party has socialist leanings, and at one point wielded considerable political and social influence in North India, particularly in Bihar. In 2003, the bulk of the party merged with the Janata Dal (United), but a small breakaway faction led by Brahmanand Mandal, and Raghunath Jha continues to function under the name of the Samta Party.

Later Raghunath Jha quit the Samta Party and joined other parties. Brahmanand Mandal is the President of the Samta Party, Kumari Nambi is the Vice President, N.A.Khoan is the Chief General Secretary and Uday Mandal is the General Secretary.

History

In the general elections of 1996, the Samta 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, 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. ^{[3] [4]}

Radhabinod Koijam became the second chief minister from Samta Party when was sworn in as Chief Minister of Manipur on 15 February 2001. ^[5] The government was however, short-lived. The coalition he was leading fell in May the same year. ^{[6] [7]}

Merger with Janata Dal (United)

Merger

A faction led by then Chief Minister of Karnataka J. H. Patel had lent support to the National Democratic Alliance, leading to the split in the Janata Dal leading to the formation of Janata Dal (Secular) under H. D. Deve Gowda, who wanted to remain equidistant from both national parties; and Janata Dal under Sharad Yadav was called Janata Dal (United). ^[8]

The Janata Dal (United) was formed with the merger of the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal, the Lok Shakti and the Samata Party.

In October 2003, George Fernandes, the president of the party, announced that the party would be merging with the Janata Dal (United). ^[9] The Janata Dal (United) was part of the ruling coalition in the National Democratic Alliance.

Ideology

The party follows the socialist ideology, in particular that of Ram Manohar Lohia. ^[10]

In politics

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. ^[11] For the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the Samata Party decided to forgo any alliance, stating that it would not ally with the Congress at any cost. ^[12]

A rally organised by Samata Party in Patna under its National General Secretary, Uday Mandal.

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	Samta Party	Bihar	12th Assembly
2	Radhabinod Koijam	15 February 2001	1 June 2001	106 days	Samta Party	Manipur	8th Assembly

See also

• List of political parties in India

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
2. "Samata Party". Indian Elections. Archived from the original on 1 June 2004.
3. March 2000: When Nitish quit as CM, before floor test
4. outvoted as much as outmanoeuvred by Laloo Yadav
5. rediff.com: Radhabinod Koijam is new Manipur CM
6. Himal South Asian-August-2000 Archived 7 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
7. The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – Editorial
8. Samata Party breaks away from JD (U)
9. Gargi Parsai (31 October 2003). "Fernandes to head Janata Dal (United)". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 4 February 2012.
10. "Samata Party". Samata Party. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
11. "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.
12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.

External links

• George Fernandes' profile