Samata Party

Samata Party was formed in 1994 when a faction lead by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar broke away from Janta Dal. The reason was that the party ideology had shifted to castism .

George Fernades rose to fame during 1977- 79 for his opposition to multinational companies. He was the key figure behind packing off Coca cola from India then. He campaigned against BJP calling it a communal party.

In 1996 Samata Party came into alliance with BJP and won on eight seats, six in Bihar and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Before this it was largely based in Bihar only. In 1998 elections again in alliance with BJP it won twelve seats, ten from Bihar and two from Uttar Pradesh.

Since then the two leaders George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar were Union Ministers in the NDA government; George Fernandes the Defence Minister and Nitish Kumar the Railway Minister.

More recently with yet another split in Janta Dal, SP has been able to rope in Janta Dal Led by Sharad Yadav, Lok Shakti led by Ramakrishna Hegde and Samata Party on a single platform for the NDA.

The main agendas for the elections are
«» Oppose and end communalism
«» Eradicate corruption at all levels
«» increased security of the nation