National Committee Meeting of Socialist Party (India), 15 August, 2026

Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Niwas, Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, Lawrence Road, Amritsar

Members Present:

1. Ningappa Devaravar, Working President

2. Sandeep Pandey, Secretary General

3. Syed Tahseen Ahmad, Chair, Parliamentary Board

4. C.P. John, Vice President

5. Surekha Adam, Vice President

6. Harinder Manshahia, General Secretary

7. D. Gopalakrishna, Secretary

8. Hareesh Swamy Kumar, Secretary

9. Balraj Nangal, Secretary

10. Meenakshi Martin Singh, President, Socialist Mahila Sabha

11. Dhananjay Sinha, General Secretary, Parliamentary Board

12. Dharamvir Singh, General Secretary, Socialist Mazdoor Sabha

13. V. Venkatesh, President, SP(I), Karnataka

14. Om Singh Satyana, President, SP(I), Punjab

15. M.R. Srinivas, President, SP(I), Andhra Pradesh

16. Advocate Salahuddin Shibu, President, SP(I), U.P.

17. Ram Mohan Rai, Member, National Committee, Haryana

18. B.S. Bedi, Punjab

19. Jagdeep Kheda, Member, National Committee, Punjab

20. Shankar Singh, President, SP(I), Kanpur District

21. Prem Kumar, General Secretary, Socialist Kisan Sabha, U.P.

22. Anurag Sharma, U.P.

24. Amita Maurya, U.P.

25. Govind Adam, Member, National Committee, Maharashtra

26. Shaoor Khan, Delhi

27. Nusrat Jahan, Delhi

28. Shailaja Shrigadi, Maharashtra

29. Ashok Hinge, Maharashtra

30. Pushpa K.M., Maharashtra

31. Om Dwivedi, Member, National Committee, U.P.

32. Malkeet Singh, Punjab

33. Jallaur Singh, Punjab

34. Kanwaljeet Singh Mannan, Punjab

35. Lijoy Thomas, President, Socialist Yuvjan Sabha, Kerala

36. A.K. Radhakrishnan, Kerala

37. Advocate Faisal Ahmad, U.P.

38. Jagjeet Singh, Punjab

39. Jagdish Sharma, Punjab

Shaikh Nurul Amin and Manoj Sarang requested persmission to remain absent from meeting because of respective family member’s illness.

Tributes were paid to Shyam Gambhir and Faisal Khan’s father who died recently and two minutes silence was observed for both.

V. Venkatesh, M.R. Srinivas, Om Singh Satyana, Ram Mohan Rai, Meenakshi Martin Singh, Dharamveer Singh, Dhananjay Sinha, Adv. Salahuddin Shibu and Jagdish Sharma were honoured. V, Venkatesh is a former M.P. from Karnataka who has recently taken over as President of SP(I), Karnataka. Om Singh Satyana, 83 years old, and Jagdish Sharma, 76 years old, were honoured for their exemplary role in the India Pakistan Peace and Friendship March from Jalandhar to Amritsar which concluded yesterday.

Harinder Singh Manshahia delivered the welcome remarks. He informed about the meeting on 10 August in Hoshiarpur in the memory of Balwant Singh Kheda. He also informed about the India Pakistan Peace and Friendship padyatra and the people’s support received along the way. He mentioned that in upcoming elections in U.P. and Punjab SP(I) should put up a few candidates who can perform well.

Ningappa Devaravar made the Presidential speech. He talked about history of socialism. He said Socialism was born out of freedom struggle, not in closed rooms. Leaders realized that political democracy was not enough. Economic equality was necessary. Party without ideology is like body without soul. Party must be present at grassroots. Commitment of workers is important. Money has started dominating politics. Movement without workers doesn’t have strength. Truth may walk slowly but never walks backward. In West Asia war it was the poor who died and powerful gained. We should oppose the war. Peace is not absence of violence. Justice is important. Nature is not a resource to be exploited. Sustainable agriculture is important. He quoted an indigenous American-Indian leader that we did not inherit this earth from our ancestors but we borrowed it from our children. Action with vision is chaos. Vision without action is dream. Strong roots create strong tree. Politics must solve problems not create new ones. Unity is strength when guided by principles. Local leadership is important. Leaders should stand with people not above them. He again quoted a famous saying that first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight with you, in the end you win. History remembers those who refuse to surrender. Let us build a peaceful, green socialist party.

As the quorum was not complete it was decided that in this meeting of national committee only discussions would be held and no major decisions will be taken.

Reports from States:

From U.P. Advocate Salahuddin Shibu talked about his background with various parties with socialist ideology. He talked about the politics of Hindutva and the need to oppose it. He raised the question whether we should support the big parties or spoil the chances of big parties by putting up candidates. Such parties are seen as agents of BJP. He opined that state unit’s should not be expected to contribute to the central fund as they struggle to meet the expenses of their own activities. Our party is not so strong in terms of mass base that we can contest election on our own. SP(I) national committee should empower the state units to enter into alliance at local level. He thinks that Green Party should be part of SP(I) rather than an alternative of SP(I). Funds are required for party activity. SP(I) national committee should give direction for U.P. and Punjab. In U.P. protests were held against the US war on Iran and Israel on Gaza. A meeting was held on 8 August against the misuse of Anti-Conversion Act for persecution of Christians.

Also from U.P., Om Dwivedi informed that grassroots campaign for democracy is being carried out at panchayat level in Kanpur Dehat. Gandhian idea of Gram Swarajya has to be implemented.

From Andhra Pradesh, new President Srinivasa mentioned that party is involved in a number of local issues like takeover of land for international airport, corruption, etc.

From Karnataka, President Venkatesh said government is working against the Constitution, it is slowly dismantling the Constitution. It has also influenced the Courts. It has branded all opposition as anti-national. State units should raise their own resources to strengthen the party.

Bihar SP(I) President Dhananjay Sinha informed that 600 members have registered in Bihar, 400 with Rs. 10 fees. Veerangana Sabha was organised on women’s day, bicycle rally to launch Green Party and labour day event. Internal election was held inside party to choose candidate for Bankipur assembly constituency. 302 people voted. There were 4 candidates. Navin Tiwari got 170 votes. Finally the nomination was rejected because of a small fault. Most district committees are defunct because there are no ground level activities. They were formed in a hurry. Even the state committee is not properly functioning. Only 3-4 members/office bearers are active. Have learnt by mistakes.

Chair, Parliamentary Board, Syed Tahseen Ahmad said some members from Bihar and outside are dissatisfied. He also raised question about what the party will do with office bearers who don’t attend meeting. He also suggested that Shaoor Ahmad should be made working president of party in Delhi to assist Abhay Sinha.

Secretary General, Sandeep Pandey said that if Dhananjay Sinha did not want Navin Tiwari to contest election from Bankipur he could have simply asked him to withdraw his candidature. Why would he manipulate to get the nomination paper of candidate rejected? The people who are disputing motives behind this have no concrete evidence and hence this matter should be closed. Anyone who has any complaint must raise it in the next national committee meeting. He also mentioned that bank a/c statements have not been received from Gujarat and Telangana. Raccha Subhdra Reddy has spent the Rs. 50,000 mistakenly transferred into Telangana SP((I) a/c and is not willing to return it. Hareesh said he will talk to her after going back.  

From Punjab, B.S. Bedi said that the National Executive is too big. It should be only 30-50 members.

From Kerala, C.P. John said Socialism is like a hat which has lost it shape because many people wear it. We have to bring back the glory of Socialist Party which has roots in 1934 party. SP(I) is part of UDF alliance in Kerala and soon it will formally join. In 8 districts party units are active. At least monthly programmes are conducted. One candidate contested in Koodiyath but unfortunately did not fare well.

Second half

Sandeep Pandey urged that every active member should make 20 members according to the Constitution of the party. Party structure should be built from below according to Constitution. In the next national council meeting to be held in 2027 every district where there is party unit must send three representatives who’ll elect  the national committee. Any state can have a valid committee only if there are committees in at least five districts. Every district should have at least two Block/Tehsil level committees which in turn should have committees in 5% of Gram Sabhas.

Sandeep Pandey informed that Socialist Party (India) has entered into a Green Alliance with Voters’ Party International, India Greens Party, Tamil Nadu Green Party and Right to Recall Party.

It was a general opinion that SP(I) should put up a few candidates in the upcoming elections in U.P. and Punjab.

Om Dwivedi took up responsibility to streamline the online membership process.

SP(I) is going to organize a padyatra in Ladakh from 10 to 24 September between Kargil and Leh in support of the demand of people of Ladakh for inclusion in Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, full statehood and justice to victims of violence on 24 September, 2025. During 7-11 October, Course on Green Socialism will be organized at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh by the Green Alliance.

It was decided that the next national committee meeting will take place in U.P.