West Bengal Socialist Party
Encyclopedia
West Bengal Socialist Party was a political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

. WBSP was formed when the Bengali socialists in the then Janata Party
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...

 split in the beginning of the 1980s (the other faction became the Democratic Socialist Party
Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra)
Democratic Socialist Party is a social democratic political party in India. The party was formed in 1981 when H.N Bahuguna came out of the then Janata Party and took the lead in forming it.The party is almost completely limited to West Bengal. The party was formed when the Bengali socialists, who...

). WBSP was a part of Left Front
Left Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...

. The party leader Kiranmoy Nanda
Kiranmoy Nanda
Kiranmoy Nanda is an Indian politician, belonging to the Samajwadi Party. He was the Fisheries Minister in the Left Front cabinet in the state of West Bengal since 1982 till 2011 when he was succeeded by Congress MLA Abu Hena.. Nanda was the general secretary of the West Bengal Socialist Party for...

 was the Fisheries Minister in the West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 government.

The party upheld in the ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan , widely known as JP Narayan, Jayaprakash, or Loknayak, was an Indian independence activist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution...

, Ram Manohar Lohia
Ram Manohar Lohia
Rammanohar Lohia was an Indian freedom fighter and a socialist political leader.-Early life:Lohia was born in a village Akbarpur in Ambedkar Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, in India to Hira Lal, a nationalist and Chanda,a teacher. He was born to Marwari Maheshwari family. His mother died when he...

 and Narendra Dev.

In 1990s, the party merged with the Samajwadi Party
Samajwadi Party
Samajwadi Party is a political party in India. It is based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It describes itself as a democratic socialist party...

 of Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav in Hindi मुलायम सिंह यादव is an Indian politician and has influence mainly in Uttar Pradesh state of India...

. Kiranmoy Nanda became one of the national secretaries of SP. But due to the differences between SP and the Communists in April, 1999 over supporting Congress in forming a government after the defeat of the Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...

 government in the trust vote, WBSP was resurrected once again.

In the state assembly elections 2001 WBSP launched four candidates, supported by Left Front. All four got elected. In total the party received 246 407 votes. In 2005 municipal polls in Kolkata, WBSP contested 2 seats (ward no. 55 and 63) as a part of LF. It lost in both seats.

In the 2006 West Bengal state assembly election, WBSP retained its four seats.
Senor leaders of the party included Moni Pal and Jonmejay Ojha. The party has influences in parts of East Midnapore
Midnapore
Midnapore is the district headquarters of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River . This area had taken a pioneering role in India's freedom struggle...

, Malda, Nadia
Nadia District
Nadia district is a district of the state of West Bengal, in the north east of India. It borders with Bangladesh to the east, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts to the south, Bardhaman district to the west, and Murshidabad district to the north....

 , North Dinajpur and Murshidabad
Murshidabad
Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...

.

In 2008 Panchayat Elections, it has secured a zilla parishad
Zilla Parishad
Zilla Parishad is a local government body at the district level in India. It looks after the administration of the rural area of the district and its office is located at the district headquarters...

 seat in Malda.
It has won 2 municipality seats in the Krishnagar
Krishnagar
Krishnanagar is a municipality and administrative headquarters of Nadia district in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Geography:Krishnanagar is located at . It has an average elevation of 14 metres...

municipality in 2008.
It has won Panchayet level seats in East Midnapore.

In April 2010, WBSP merged with the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Yadav. Kiranmoy Nanda again became a general secretary of SP.

In 2011, it contested 5 seats as a LF partner.
But could retain only the BHagbangola seat of Murshidabad district.
Kiranmoy Nanda himself was defeated at Raigunj - a seat that has been allotted to the SP's kitty this time.

Since then, Kiranmoy Nanda is singing a discordent note about the LF.
It seems that he wants to be cosy with the Trinamool.
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