Daltonganj: The Azad Samaj Party (ASP) in Jharkhand will focus on the 2027 panchayat elections, state president Kashif Raza said on Friday.“The Azad Samaj Party is girdling its lions to contest the panchayat elections due in 2027. We have begun our organisational works for the expansion of the party base in the state,” Raza said.The Chandrashekhar Azad-led party has set a target of 10,000 members in each of Jharkhand’s 24 districts. With more than 4,000 panchayats in the state, Raza said ASP will contest each seat.On the 2024 assembly polls, when ASP contested 12 seats and polled 80,000 votes, he said, “Our vote share was below 1 %. It was 0.87 %.”“We will make a big entry through the panchayat elections. We are expanding and consolidating our organisation at panchayat level,” he said.Rejecting any alliance with Mayawati’s BSP, Raza said, “The BSP has derailed the political eco system of the denied and deprived. It has mortgaged to the BJP. We will go alone. No truck with the BSP.” ASP, he said, will occupy the space vacated by BSP and work harder to take on BJP.ASP criticised the Hemant Soren govt over law and order, land grabbing, rising crime and public dissatisfaction. Vice-president Mumtaz Ahmad Khan said SC/ST atrocity cases were pending, including over 80 in Palamu, and scholarships remained unpaid. Ajay Singh Chero alleged Khas Mahal land in Daltonganj was being grabbed with official connivance.
State president of ASP, Kashif Raza (second from right) holds news conference in Daltonganj on Friday
