Samajwadi Party re-inventing itself, injecting new blood

Lucknow, Nov 27: After the poll debacle early this year in Uttar Pradesh amid bickering in political stalwart Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family, serious introspection is taking place in Samajwadi Party under the leadership of former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The party is re-drawing strategies to balance political equations in the changed scenario, and inducting young, educated and articulate youngsters in an effort to depart from the common perception that it was only interested in promoting people from just one caste and pampering just one section of the minority communities.
One such youngster who was recently inducted by the party is 34-year-old scion of Raja of Mahmudabad’s son Dr Ali Khan Mahmudabad.
In an exclusive tete-a-tete in his sprawling ancestral property Mahmudabad House in Lucknow, Ali, 
“There is a realisation in Samajwadi Party leadership that the canvas needs to be much larger and the scope much broader. I, for one, am completely against religious politics. It is an easy recipe for disaster. If you base politics on religion then you are promoting antagonistic identity politics which will inevitably detract from real issues.” UNI