Samta Party

The Samta Party (SP) 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, Raghunath Jha and N. K. Singh continues to function under the name of the Samta Party.

Samta Party
ChairpersonBrahmanand Mandal[1]
FounderGeorge Fernandes and Nitish Kumar
Founded1994
IdeologySocialism
Seats in Lok Sabha0
Seats in Rajya Sabha
0 / 245
Election symbol

Later Raghunath Jha and N. K. Singh quit the Samta Party and joined other parties. Brahmanand Mandal is the President of the Samta Party and N.A.Khoan is the General Secretary. In January 2020 Uday Mandal became Bihar State President.

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 March 3, 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 324 member house. Both alliances where lees then the majority mark that is 163. Nithish resigned before the 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. One minority part in the party led by Brahmanand Mandal refused to go along with the merger. The Election Commission of India decided that the merger was not technically complete and so a faction was allowed to function under the name of Samata Party in the leadership of Brahmanand Mandal.

Return of George Fernandes

It was reported that George Fernandes was angry with Nitish Kumar as Sharad Yadav was elected as the party president of JD(U) and he believed that this humiliation had been engineered by Nitish Kumar. It was also reported that there were indications that Fernandes may revive the Samata Party as he felt that the rank and file of the party had been ignored following the party's merger with JD(U).[10] George Fernandes returned to the party in 2007.[11]

Ideology

The party follows the socialist ideology, in particular that of Ram Manohar Lohia.[12]

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.[13] 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.[14]

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 10 March 2000 106 days Samta Party Manipur 8th Assembly

See also

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  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. "George knocks on EC's door, may revive Samata". Times of India. 14 April 2006. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  11. "Samata Party : a brief history". Samata Party. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  12. "Samata Party". Samata Party. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  13. "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.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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