New Delhi: In 1962, when Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru was contesting the third Lok Sabha election, the grand old party faced a surprise challenge in its own backyard in western UP from Republican Party of India.
Founded by Dr B R Ambedkar, the RPI was a strong force in Maharashtra, especially in and around Bombay. But a young Republican worker — B P Maurya — who was also working as a professor in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) started mobilizing Dalits and Muslims to take on the Congress.
Muslims in Aligarh after the 1961 riots were miffed with the Congress. Maurya not only won the Aligarh Lok Sabha seat, RPI candidates trounced Congress in some seats in the Assembly polls being held simultaneously. Aligarh, Agra, Muradabad and Badayun became the favorite hunting ground for the RPI.
Many years later, by default or otherwise, Bahujan Samaj Party after two consecutive and crippling defeats in parliamentary and Assembly polls has shown signs of revival, stilting on Maurya’s Dalit-Muslim combination.
In the process, BSP chief Mayawati has demonstrated political doggedness and tenacity to emerge as a challenger to the BJP in urban local body polls. The party has bagged Mayoral seats in two municipal corporations out of sixteen. The remaining 14 were won by the BJP.
BSP candidates won Aligarh and Meerut local body polls. The party stood a close second in Agra, Saharanpur and Jhansi. BSP has put up a strong fight is all the areas where Dalit-Muslim combination is electorally strong enough to challenge the BJP.
All these regions—Western UP and Bundelkhand—have been traditional BSP stronghold. Had it not been for a three-way split in non-BJP vote, BSP could have managed to win a couple of seats more.
It is for the first time BSP has contested urban body elections on the party symbol. Unlike the BJP, BSP chief Mayawati did not campaign in these elections. However, the party has been quietly trying to consolidate its cadre in the last six months, especially after the BSP chief quit her Rajya Sabha seat.
The party since then has been organizing divisional level meetings on the 18th of every month, to remind the cadre of the day when Mayawati quit the Rajya Sabha for what she called refusal of permission to speak on Saharanpur caste riots. These meetings are chaired by Mayawati.
Mayawati has in the last one month also toured and held meeting in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The two states are going to polls in winters next year.
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