Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Former Chief MInister of Uttar Pradesh and Bahujan Samajwadi Party Supremo, Mayawati is fighting hard to get her party’s reputation back to the top.

Frequent changes of the political equation in Uttar Pradesh and the growing dominance of BJP in the country is making it difficult for any party to keep up their standards. Mayawati also, like the other is thriving to get back her party’s foothold strong in Uttar Pradesh. During the 2017 elections, BJP won the polls with overwhelming victory washing out other parties. Though Samajwadi party somehow still has some grip left in the state, BSP seemed to be completely washed out. Recently the change in events has once again

Recently, the change in events has once again boosted the BSP supremo to stand up and fight back for the re-establishment of the party. Last month on Sep 18 Mayawati began with the campaign to make her party’s presence be felt in Uttar Pradesh. She began with a rally from Meerut, on 18, marking the date to be noted as an important one as she had given her resignation from the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session on 18 July.

She is going to hold her next rally from Azamgarh and this seems to be a politically important place for the BSP as it had won 4 seats from the region during the 2017 assembly elections. Azamgarh currently, holds 19 seats out of the total 403 member UP assembly. Selecting Azamgarh as her second venue for the rally also holds another reason as during the 2017 elections BJP could only get one seat in its pocket out of the total 10 assembly constituencies.

Mayawati is heavyweight and is known to have a good reputation among the Muslims and the other backward classes. During her rally in Azamgargh, which happens to be the constituency of Samajwadi Party patriarch and former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati is likely to target the Muslims for her vote bank.

According to the sources in the party, BSP still enjoys the support of the most backward castes and will be targeting the Muslim voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls due in 2019. The sources also informed that the supremo has directed all the party members to gather party workers from three divisions  Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi at her Azamgarh rally. “This region, comprising Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Varanasi, send about 65 MLAs to the state assembly,” said the sources.

The party insiders also said that though BSP enjoys the support of the MBC, it will still need to work on luring the voters as BJP also managed to woo many of them to their side during the 2017 assembly elections. The party has already begun its preparation well in advance of the rally.

“In our organisation, one sector comprises 10 booths. Our party leaders from the district units concerned attend the meetings of sector committees. They underline the importance of the rally for the party at all such meetings,” the source informed.

The recent developments in Uttar Pradesh are indicating a lot of changes in the political equations of the state. Recently, Samajwadi Party, the main rival of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party is also actively engaged in campaigning to regain its party’s foothold back in the state.

Despite the differences between former Chief Minister and Chief of SP Akhilesh Yadav and his father and the party’s patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, the party is trying to get on the same grounds for the sake of winning back the confidence of the people. Akhilesh has invited Mulayam Singh Yadav to attend the party’s national convention on Oct 5 in Agra. The latter has accepted the invitation and this is being regarded as finally the father bowed down in front of the son for the sake of the party.

This new development may once again strengthen the SP, finally sorting out its differences within the party and can be a matter of concern for the BSP. BJP with the aim to bloom lotus in every state and colour the nation saffron and SP getting back to the stage with unity among the party members may be a tough challenge for the BSP Supremo to fight. Though one can never predict the tactful moves played in politics.