look news india
On the political chessboard of Uttar Pradesh, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) are busy sharpening their respective election strategies, planning rallies and internal meetings, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has surprised all the political analysts by playing a big and unexpected bet. Despite all the challenges like ongoing internal strife within the party, frequent breakdown of leaders and long distance from power, Mayawati has won in the matter of finalizing the names of candidates and distribution of tickets in the upcoming by-elections of Uttar Pradesh and strategic assembly constituencies. The BSP chief, known for his calm but infallible political decisions, has even formally announced the names of his in-charges (probable candidates) on many seats, defeating aggressive rivals like BJP and SP. This flamboyant step of Mayawati is being widely discussed in the political circles, because at a time when major political parties are busy in seat sharing and internal discontent, this masterstroke of Mayawati has directly given an edge to BSP’s election campaign on the ground.
Analysts who deeply understand the politics of Uttar Pradesh believe that this strategy of Mayawati is a part of her old cadre based politics. It is often seen that when election dates come closer, big parties like SP and BJP face heavy factionalism and rebellion in the final round of ticket distribution. To deal with this, the BSP chief has implemented his social engineering formula ahead of time and has finalized the list of names of assembly in-charges, who are sure to be fielded as official candidates in the elections. Keeping in mind its traditional equation of catering to Dalit, Muslim and upper caste voters (especially Brahmins), BSP completed its homework very quietly. This quick decision of Mayawati has proved that despite being away from power, her organizational structure and decision-making ability is still very fast and effective, which has given sleepless nights to the political strategists of both NDA and India Alliance.
It is well known that Bahujan Samaj Party has faced many major setbacks in the last few years. Many powerful and popular leaders of the party have left BSP and joined Samajwadi Party or Bharatiya Janata Party. Apart from this, the decisions regarding Akash Anand and reports of factionalism within the party had raised questions on the morale of the workers. But Mayawati has once again made it clear that her monopoly and strict discipline on the party is the biggest strength of BSP. Ignoring internal strife and external political attacks, he has directly communicated with the grassroots workers and has given them clear instructions to enter the election fray by submitting candidates ahead of time. This has not only given enough time to the BSP candidates to reach out to the voters in their respective assembly constituencies, but has also posed a challenge to the opposition parties to recalibrate their strategy.
In Uttar Pradesh, where the main contest was believed to be between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati’s aggressive move has once again given indications of making the contest triangular. The timely announcement of candidates by BSP has increased the possibility of breaking into the Muslim-Dalit vote bank of SP, while the candidates fielded by BSP on some seats can also impact the core vote bank of BJP. How much impact this big bet of Mayawati will have on the upcoming election results in the changing political atmosphere of Uttar Pradesh will be clear only after the elections, but for now, by winning the race of ticket distribution, she has definitely given a strong message to her political opponents.