The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes. It was an offshoot of the Janata Dal, with the alleged casteism of the parent party being the reason given for the split.
The party has socialist leanings, and at one point wielded considerable political and social influence in North India, particularly in Bihar.
History
In the general elections of 1996, the Samata 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.
Radhabinod Koijam became the second chief minister from Samata Party when was sworn in as Chief Minister of Manipur on 15 February 2001. The government was however, short-lived. The coalition he was leading fell in May the same year.
In the 1999 Loksabha election, Samata Party was in an informal alliance with the Lok Shakti and the Janata Dal(U). A proposal to merge the three into a single party was called off in January 2000 by George Fernandes who said the party would contest in the 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly election on its own. In October 2003, the proposal was floated once again with Fernandes announcing the merger with the Janata Dal (United). The Janata Dal (United) was part of the ruling coalition in the National Democratic Alliance. The merger was challenged by a faction of the party and wasn’t officially recognized by the Election Commission of India. The faction continued using the name Samata party under the leadership of Brahmanand Mandal.
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 | Samata Party | Bihar | 12th Assembly |
| 2 | Radhabinod Koijam | 15 February 2001 | 1 June 2001 | 106 days | Samata Party | Manipur | 8th Assembly |