SP holds national executive meeting on poll defeat

Lucknow, March 25 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party (SP) held its national executive meeting here on Saturday, presided over by party president Akhilesh Yadav, to take stock of the drubbing in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, but SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav chose to skip it.

According to sources, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was extended an invitation but he chose not to turn up.

At the meeting, the party took stock of its massive defeat in the just-concluded assembly elections and decided that the results would be dissected threadbare at the district unit level.

Later briefing the media, former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that elections would be held for various party posts soon and the election of the national president would be completed by September 30 this year.

Sources told IANS that in the high-level meeting it was discussed and decided that the party spruce up its organizational structure.

It was also decided that the party would undertake a membership drive afresh from April 15.

Senior leaders of the party turned up at the meeting but the mood was subdued, apparently owing to its defeat at the hustings.

The SP had 224 members in the 16th assembly but has been reduced to just 47 seats now after the elections held last month.