The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, which were once considered archrivals, came together for 2019 Lok Sabha polls amidst high-level campaigns that the alliance was unbeatable. However, on ground, things did not work as expected and BSP after gaining 10 Parliamentary seats announced that it was parting ways and blamed the SP for the failure of the tie-up. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s silence then helped him gain political brownie points.
But with a string of BSP leaders now switching over to SP ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, it seems Akhilesh Yadav’s strategy was a carefully crafted one to extend its vote bank beyond Yadavs and Muslims.
The Recent Switchovers
BSP leaders who recently joined SP include Ghatampur MLA RP Kushwaha, cabinet minister KK Gautam, Saharanpur MP Qadir Rana and former state BSP chief RS Kushwaha.
Meanwhile, two big names and sitting MLAs, Lalji Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar, who were recently expelled from the BSP, switched over to SP. Verma is a prominent name among OBC (Kurmi) leaders and held several portfolios under the BSP government.
Rajbhar an MLA from Akbarpur while Verma from the Katehari seat both also served as cabinet ministers during the BSP regime. Both were considered trusted aides of BSP chief Mayawati.
With a few months left for the state polls early next year, sources suggest eight more rebel MLAs of BSP may also join SP soon.
Mayawati on the Exodus
The exodus may have created a vacuum in the BSP but Mayawati says she feels it is being done by the SP to save its face from the “stampede” within SP itself.
In a series of tweets on October 3, Mayawati while attacking SP wrote, “Involving selfish, ticket-seeking and expelled people of other parties in the SP is not going to increase their party’s mass base. This is nothing but a mere attempt to give false comfort to themselves and prevent a possible stampede from their party, the public understands all this very well. If the SP takes such people from other parties in the party, then surely many of their people seeking tickets will definitely find a way to go to other parties, this will not increase their party base but will cause more loss, but some people are compelled by their habit.”
“Apart from this, the way the media is projecting these news items shows that the importance of BSP is increasing…” she had tweeted.
A Well-Crafted Plan to Attract Non-Yadavs, OBCs
In a well-thought-out plan, the SP chief has put forward local and community-specific leaders to garner votes. Akhilesh has sent his SP state president Naresh Uttam Patel on a statewide Yatra while another SP leader Rajpal Kashyap has been engaged in ‘Kashyap Swabhiman Yatra’. Many say it’s an act to show that the SP campaign is not Akhilesh centric.
As part of the strategy, SP has been focusing on small caste-based parties who have fixed votes from 5,000 to 40,000 in every constituency, which when added to SP’s traditional votes can put the party in a stronger position. A similar strategy was also adopted by the BJP in 2017 UP assembly elections.
The SP has recently announced Narendra Verma, a backward leader, as its candidate for deputy speaker post in the UP Assembly. Though Verma lost the election by a huge margin, it gave SP the ammo to attack BJP alleging he was defeated as he was from a backward caste.
SP leader and leader of opposition Ramgovind Choudhary had said, “The anti-OBC face of BJP has been shown in the house. BJP pretends to show support and love for OBCs and Dalits but didn’t allow Narendra Verma to become the vice-president because he belongs to the Kurmi caste.”
Interestingly, SP has so far only 49 MLAs in the state assembly, including Shivpal Yadav, who formed his own outfit, and Nitin Agarwal, who recently switched over to the BJP. SP bagging 60 votes shows that nearly 13 MLAs went for cross-voting.
Now, Om Prakash Rajbhar, a former minister in Yogi Adityanath cabinet has also announced that his party will be contesting the 2022 UP Assembly Elections in alliance with SP. A public rally has also been organised by Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) at Haldharpur ground in Mau on October 27 and Akhilesh Yadav is expected to share the stage with Rajbhar.
After the Akhilesh-Rajbhar meeting in Lucknow, the SP had stated, “There are 18-22% Rajbhar voters in Purvanchal with SBSP. The party has influence in more than 150 seats of Purvanchal. There is deep penetration in the assembly seats of Varanasi division, Devipatan division, Gorakhpur division, Azamgarh division of the state. SBSP also has a stronghold on sub-castes like Bansi, Aarkh, Arkvanshi, Kharwar, Kashyap, Pal, Prajapati…”
What Experts Say
According to experts, the answer to the recent exodus lies back in the history of both the parties.
Political commentator and veteran journalist Ratan Mani Lal told News18, “Let me take you back in history when the BSP was in its formative state, then on the call of late Kanshi Ram who were those people who had joined the BSP? They were those who did not want to align either with Congress or BJP and were not ready to accept the dominance of Yadavs in the SP either. For them, BSP was an alternative to challenge Mulayam in the first place and then BJP and Congress later.”
SP and BSP had come together to form the government but after the 1995 infamous guest house incident, both turned bitter foes. “Now after almost a gap of more than 20 years, BSP stands nowhere and is certainly not an option to BJP, Congress or even to SP. So, what will active people in BSP do now?”
Mani Lal pointed out that Mulayam Yadav-led SP did not accept Dalits and MBCs but Akhilesh’s SP is a reformed version of his father’s. “Akhilesh being a more pragmatic politician feels that he has to encourage and appeal to various castes to be in power in the state. So, for BSP leaders, SP emerges as a natural option.”
The BSP has had several splits with leaders accusing the leadership of lacking the connect. The churning had started last year during the Rajya Sabha polls when five MLAs met Akhilesh and alleged that their support to the BSP candidate was forged.
Prominent leaders who have either left or have been expelled from BSP since 2016 have alleged extortion and arrogance of the leadership as key reasons for their departure. These complaints increased after the BSP broke its pact with the SP following an alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
With the recent exodus, senior BSP leader and Mayawati’s trusted aide Satish Chandra Mishra has emerged as a thorn in the flesh of the 11 party MLAs who were sacked by her in the past two years, with many accusing Mishra of creating differences and misleading her.
Mishra has been a trusted aide of Mayawati for years and was key to reaching out to Brahmins that brought BSP to power in 2007 with 206 of the 403 seats. Since then, the party’s vote share has been falling from 30%, to 80 seats (25%) in 2012 and 19 seats (22%) in 2017 assembly elections.
Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.
Comments
0 comment