Samata Party
The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes. It is led by Uday Mandal. In 2003, the party not merged with the Janata Dal (United), it was an offshoot of the Janata Dal. 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. 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). 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). The Janata Dal (United) was part of the ruling coalition in the National Democratic Alliance. Not Merge with JD(U). Election Commission of India refused the merger of Samata  party into Janta Dal (United). Ideology. The party follows the socialist ideology, in particular that of Ram Manohar Lohia. 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. 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.