LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati has been ignoring allegations by rivals, does not respond to invitations of alliances and maintains a studied silence in the din of elections.
The BSP headquarter in Lucknow is deserted and BSP’s blue flags are missing. The crowds of party workers that throng party offices during polls are also missing.
Mayawati’s actions create a furore but her silence is deafening and is unnerving her friends and foes alike.
However, it is amply clear that though she may seem inactive and suspiciously silent, Mayawati has been quietly working overtime to target her rivals – mainly the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
The BSP is apparently keen to reclaim its lost space by edging out these two parties.
The BSP has declared only about two dozen candidates so far and if sources are to be believed, she is waiting for SP and Congress to declare their candidates so that she can respond with her list.
The BSP list includes seven Muslim candidates on the seats that have a sizeable Muslim population. The candidates include Majid Ali from Saharanpur, Zeeshan Khan from Rampur, Shaukat Ali from Sambhal, Irfan Saifi from Moradabad, Mujahid Hussain from Amroha, Abid Ali from Aonla and Anis Ahmad Khan from Pilibhit.
The move is designed to sabotage the ambitions of the INDIA alliance to consolidate Muslim votes in western Uttar Pradesh constituencies having a strong Muslim presence.
Muslims constitute 19.26 per cent (3.85 crore) of Uttar Pradesh’s total population — which stands at 19.98 crore. There are at least 20 Lok Sabha and 85-100 Assembly constituencies where the population of Muslim voters varies between 25-50 per cent. Muslims form 20-25 per cent of the total population in another 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats and 60 Assembly seats.
There are around 30 Lok Sabha constituencies and 150 Assembly segments in the state where Muslims decide electoral outcomes.
In the previous general elections, when the BSP and SP contested in alliance, the two parties had fielded 12 Muslim candidates.
In the 2022 Assembly polls, the SP-RLD-Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) alliance fielded 63 Muslim candidates of whom 34 won.
“Once the SP-Congress coalition announces its candidates for all 80 seats, BSP’s list will be released without delay, ” a party functionary told IANS.
As for Dalits, Mayawati seems to be confident that her base among Dalits is intact. She does perceive some degree of threat from Bhim Army Chief Chandra Shekhar which is evident from the fact that her nephew Akash Anand devoted an entire election rally in Bijnor on Saturday, targeting ‘that fellow’ (read Chandra Shekhar).
For Mayawati, her main political rivals in Uttar Pradesh are SP and Congress – and certainly not the BJP. She is fiercely protective of her Dalit and Muslim vote base and will not allow SP-Congress to make a dent in it.
She is aware that the BSP’s fortune is inversely proportionate to the fortunes of SP and Congress and to ensure the survival of her party, she will go all out to damage the prospects of the INDIA bloc in the elections.
Mayawati, incidentally, has often been called a ‘B’ team of the BJP, mainly because she has carefully avoided a head-on confrontation with the ruling party.
Her statements are cautiously worded and sources close to her insist that she does not wish to invite trouble from the Centre and state government.
“There are already cases of financial bungling against her brother Anand and she knows that the BJP is not budging from power anytime in the near future. We have been instructed not to utter a word against the government, ” said a former party MLA.