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UP assembly elections 2022: BSP to begin poll prep with Brahmin meet today
The Ayodhya conference signals the BSP’s plan to replay the social engineering formula (Dalit-Brahmin alliance) that brought it to power in the 2007 assembly elections
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will launch its campaign for the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh with a Brahmin conference in Ayodhya on Friday.
BSP national general secretary and the party’s Brahmin face Satish Chandra Mishra will launch the conference with visits to Ram Janmabhoomi and Hanuman Garhi temple on Friday morning. The conference will be organised at a resort.
The Ayodhya conference signals the BSP’s plan to replay the social engineering formula (Dalit-Brahmin alliance) that brought it to power in the 2007 assembly elections.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, the party plans to organise a series of Brahmin conferences across the state.
The BSP has decided to project Khushi Dubey, the wife of Amar Dubey (an associate of Bikru case-accused Vikas Dubey), as a symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s alleged atrocities on the Brahmin community.
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Eight policemen were killed in an ambush during a raid on Vikas Dubey’s house at Bikru village in Kanpur on July 2-3 night last year. A few days later, Vikas Dubey and Amar Dubey were killed in a police encounter. Khushi Dubey has been lodged in a Barabanki shelter home since July 8 last year. Her family said that she was not involved in the attack on the police personnel, yet the state government put her behind bars. She had married Amar Dubey just a few days before the Bikru incident, they said.
BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra said, “I met Kushi Dubey’s family. I have assured them all assistance in fighting the case for her release in court. Under the BJP government, there has been a spurt in atrocities on Brahmin and Dalit communities.”
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh also demanded the release of Khushi Dubey. BJP MLC Umesh Dewedi also wrote to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding her release from jail.
The BSP has put up hoardings and banners in Ayodhya, inviting people to participate in the conference while following Covid protocols. The party has named the conference Prabudh Varg Vichar Goshti (intellectual community meeting).
“The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court, on July 11, 2013, imposed a ban on caste-based rallies in Uttar Pradesh. In view of the court order, the name of the conference has been changed to intellectual community conference,” said a BSP leader.
Brahmin conferences will also be organised in the BSP stronghold Ambedkar Nagar on July 25, in Prayagraj on July 26, Kaushambi on July 27, Pratapgarh on July 28 and Sultanpur on July 29.
Announcing the launch of the Brahmin conferences on July 18, BSP chief Mayawati said, “The Brahmin community supported and tried the BJP for five years… They should support the BSP for their security, dignity and progress in the coming assembly elections.”
The BSP chief said despite her party’s defeat in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections, there had been no decline in the BSP vote percentage.
“Thenumber of seats of the BSP declined but its vote share is higher than the Samajwadi Party’s,” she said.
