LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) not only failed to retain its lone assembly seats in Rajasthan (Rajgarh Laxmangarh) and Madhya Pradesh (Niwari), it lost badly on the percentage of votes the party had polled in Delhi and Chattisgarh too. The results are sure to have left the party leadership more than uncomfortable as was evident from the fact that party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav dissolved the state units in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh moments after the final results were declared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) late Sunday evening.

None of the senior leaders, including national president Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav or even the spokesperson of the party's national unit and sitting MP Ram Gopal Yadav , was available for comment. Sitting SP MP Naresh Agarwal, who has a comment on almost everything that happens in the region, was not accessible either. Though all four leaders were present in Delhi on Sunday, no statements were issued by any of the four leaders till late night. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav flew back to the state capital in the night.

State unit spokesperson and minister for prison in Akhilesh cabinet Rajendra Chaudhary described the results as a set back for the "secular political forces" in the country, senior minister in UP government Mohammed Azam Khan described the "pathetic performance" of the Congress as a consequence of Rahul Gandhi's "Badtameezi" (arrogance).

In 2008, the SP had contested on 64 seats in Rajasthan where and its Rajgarh-Laxmangarh candidate Surajbhan Dhaka had secured a place in the state assembly. The party had then got .76 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituencies in which it had contested from. This time the party not only failed to retain the seat with the sitting MLA Surajbhan Danka finishing a close second, but also lost on the vote share securing only .396 percent of the votes polled in constituencies from where it had contested.

Madhya Pradesh was no different compared to 2008 where the party had secured the Niwari seat and polled 1.99 per cent of the votes polled in 187 constituencies that SP had contested from. This time the SP contested on 50 seats but failed to retain Niwari seat from where Meera Deepak Yadav, wife of a sitting SP MLA from UP, was in the fray. She stood second with 33,186 votes and was defeated by her nearest rival Anil Jain of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a margin of 27,209 votes.

Samajwadi Party was banking on its traditional support base of Other Backward Classes and Muslims and had hoped to win at least seven seats in Delhi. It had fielded candidates in 27 of the 70 seats. In Madhya Pradesh, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav went out canvassing for the party and addressing rallies to garner support but nothing worked.

