While the BJP and the SP, with their election campaigns, are grabbing most of the limelight, the Bahujan Samaj Party is busy stitching up new social alliances in Uttar Pradesh.
The BSP claims Muslims and Dalits are voting together for the party and a new social coalition is in the offing. Following an internal analysis of the last two phases of elections (April 10 and 17) in 21 constituencies, the party is confident its tally will go up in western UP.
It had won just six of these 21 seats in 2009. The BSP’s assessment is that Muslims have voted in its favour in these constituencies. The party leadership says about 65 per cent of the total votes polled was of Muslims and Dalits.
The party’s key strategist and State President Ram Achal Rajbhar told
Mayawati is the party’s star campaigner. So far, she has attended about 40 rallies and road shows in about 20 districts of the State, attacking the SP, the BJP and the Congress in her speeches. The BJP, however, is her favourite opponent.
The BSP has fielded 19 Muslims and 21 Brahmins in the State. It is widely perceived that the party is going to be the main challenge to Modi in Uttar Pradesh.
The BSP’s focus is on the last three phases, when 47 constituencies go to the polls. Among these 47 seats, 13 are the BSP’s sitting seats, where Rajbhar expects the party to perform better.
“Not just Dalits and Muslims, but MBCs and Brahmins are also voting for us. This is a state-wide trend,” he said and blamed the media for not projecting the BSP’s work in the State.
“We have been in the forefront to fight against the misrule of the SP. The BJP was nowhere in the scene.
“Still, the media predict 40 seats for that party — it got just 11 per cent of the vote share in the 2012 Assembly elections. But no asks how they are going to get more than 30 per cent of votes in just two years,” he said.
According to Rajbhar, the BJP, on finding that the Modi wave has no impact on Uttar Pradesh, tried to communalise the electorate.
Failed attempts “But people have rejected these attempts as well. They have seen how the BJP used Ram Lalla to get to power. They are not going to fall again into their traps,” he said.
The party’s key person for the Muslim-Dalit combine is senior leader Nazeemuddin Siddiqui, who has been in touch with various sections of Muslim leaders recently.
The party believes the new axis will bring wonders to the State politics.
“Both Dalits and Muslims have faced decades of oppression. This new experiment in social engineering will change the politics of this country,” said BSP treasurer and Rajya Sabha MP Ambeth Rajan.
Rajan further said the party does not believe the BJP can garner votes by spending crores on advertisements. “We are doing our job well on the ground. We are away from the media glare and are happy about it. We and our voters prefer to do our work silently,” he said.