Mayawati focuses on Bihar elections
Chief Minister Mayawati will embark on Mission Bihar on June 15 where she is schedule to launch the campaign for October assembly election at a rally in Patna.
Chief Minister Mayawati will embark on Mission Bihar on June 15 where she is schedule to launch the campaign for October assembly election at a rally in Patna.
The BSP has summoned zonal rally in which party workers from Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand would participate.
With multi-cornered contest in the offing in Bihar poll battle the BSP has now chalked elaborate plan to join the fray independently. In the past also the BSP had not entered into any alliance.
“We have no plan to enter into electoral alliance”, senior BSP leader and incharge Bihar Gandhi Azad told Hindustan Times on Sunday.
The BSP had won four seats in 2005 assembly election and in September 2009 by-elections on 18 seats, it succeeded in winning Nautan seat. In the present House it has five MLAs.
Even though the BSP has so far been a small player in highly caste-ridden Bihar politics, it has been desperately striving to widen the base in the state.
There is feeling in the party that in case of fractured verdict, with increased tally it could play a role in government formation. Thus it has been trying to carve out a place independently among the major players—Janata (U), BJP, RJD, and LJP. In view of bonhomie between Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP would not like to play spoilsports for RJD.
The BSP had fielded candidates in all 243 constituencies in 2005. But with only four percent vote it could win four seats. In 2009 Lok Sabha election, the BSP with 4.47 percent vote could not win even a single seat.
“This time we will do better”, Azad said.
Basically the party has pocket of influence in contiguous areas on UP-Bihar border. But Gandhi Azad said, “we are trying to give an alternative to Bihar”. The BSP hopes to perform well in multi-cornered contest.
Playing Dalit-OBC card the BSP has been making efforts to eat into vote bank of Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The two parties have considerable control over Dalit-OBC vote in the state. The LJP had made hectic efforts in 2007 UP elections to damage BSP but failed miserably.
Gandhi Azad said at least 1000 workers from each assembly constituency would attend the Patna Rally. After coming to power in 2007 in UP Mawayati had directed the leaders to concentrate on Bihar. Gandhi Azad claimed the efforts would yield positive results.