Detractors blame 'deviation' from Kanshi Ram's policies for BSP's downslide

Lucknow: The BSP's downslide continued from last year's Assembly polls to the recent urban body elections in Uttar Pradesh, with detractors blaming the party's "deviation" from its founder Kanshi Ram's policies for its continued woes.

If the social engineering formula of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not work in the 2022 Assembly polls, the Muslim card played by it in the recent urban body elections, especially on the mayoral seats, failed to make any mark.

Talking to PTI, former Uttar Pradesh minister and a founder member of the BSP, R K Chaudhary, blamed party president Mayawati's "deviation" from Kanshi Ram's formula of "jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni hissedari" to "jiski jitne taiyari", and said upper castes will always be better prepared.

"She gave more representation to those whose ancestors had created the 'varna vyavastha' (caste system) and discrimination in the society," Chaudhary said.

Even if the party manages to increase its number of seats in future Assembly elections, its hold and popularity among its core support base will continue to slide, he said, adding, "The BSP is now reduced to just 30-35 MLAs at the most in the state." Mayawati, a four-time former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, formed a majority government in the state with 206 MLAs only 15 years ago, securing a vote share of more than 30 per cent.

The BSP managed a vote share of around 12 per cent in the 2022 Assembly polls, with only one party MLA getting elected, which was even below the tally of the Congress and new parties like the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik), both of which got two seats.

The party had won 19 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls and secured a vote share of more than 21 per cent. But five years later, its vote share was the lowest since 1996.

From being the only party that had won two mayoral seats in the previous elections to drawing a blank in the recent polls, the BSP has been witnessing a continued erosion in its vote bank. Seeking to play the Muslim card, Mayawati had given 64 per cent tickets to candidates from the minority community for mayoral posts, but with no success.

"No work was done to keep its Dalit, backward and minority vote bank intact ever since the BSP wrapped up its full-majority government and hence, the young and millennial voters lost touch with the party's ideology or what it stood for," a leader who recently parted ways with the party said on the condition of anonymity.

"This was also the phase when a churning had been going on in national politics and polarisation of the society had started, and the BJP not only took advantage, but also successfully consolidated its hold on the majority votes," he said.

The situation today is such that the BSP has been reduced to a mere "B" team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said, adding that it would have been better for the BSP had it openly joined hands with the saffron party.

Terming the Muslim card played by the BSP in the local body polls a mere "eyewash", Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who was once considered a close confidant of Mayawati, said, "Her actions are otherwise. All are against the BJP on different issues but she sides with it when it comes to issues such as inauguration of a new Parliament building." "The BSP had gained strength only because of the hard work of Kanshi Ram. People came along with a mission to establish a society that cannot be sold off ... people who did not vote by taking money. But exactly the opposite is going on in the party now," he added.

A retired bureaucrat considered close to Mayawati when she was the chief minister said the BSP has no programme to bring the "bahujan samaj" together.

"Regrettably, the BSP chief has got confined to her office and house, and on all issues of importance, she restricts her duty to mere tweets. There is no effort to connect with the masses," he said.

At a time when all opposition parties appear to be getting closer to each other in view of next year's Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati has been asking her party cadre to prepare for going it alone.

For the last Lok Sabha polls, the BSP had stitched up an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and won 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, but parted ways soon after. The SP had won five seats.

At a meeting to review the party's showing in the recent urban local body polls, Mayawati had accused the BJP of misusing the official machinery and claimed that except for the mayoral elections -- in which the saffron party won all 17 posts -- the ruling party was not successful in its designs.

She had also urged the Election Commission to put an effective check on the misuse of official machinery by the ruling party as well as to curb the influence of religion in politics.

"If the mayoral elections were also conducted on ballots instead of electronic voting machines, the results would have definitely been different," Mayawati had said.

However, in the two-phase urban local body polls held on May 4 and May 11, the BJP won the mayoral seats in all 17 municipal corporations and bagged 813 of the 1,420 posts of corporators. The SP bagged 191 posts of corporators and the BSP won 85. The BSP and the SP could not win a single mayoral seat.