Mayawati asks partymen to stay away from bypolls

In a seemingly bizarre diktat, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati has asked her party leaders and cadres to move out of the three Assembly constituencies where by-elections are to be held next week.

BSP state president Ram Achal Rajbhar confirmed that no party functionary or leader will be visiting or staying in the Assembly constituencies where elections are being held. “We have left it to the voters to decide whom to vote for,” he said.

The three Assembly constituencies where by-elections are being held — Deoband, Muzaffarnagar and Faizabad — have a sizeable Dalit vote share and BSP candidates got handsome votes in 2012 though they finally lost to the SP.

While senior BSP leaders are flummoxed over their leader’s decision, they do not have the courage to question her.

“She must be having something in her mind because this is the first time that such a directive has come from her. In previous by-elections when the BSP did not contest, no such instructions were given to us”, said a BSP leader from Deoband.

Political analysts feel that the move is a clever attempt to leave the Dalit voters in an uncertain situation so that they move back to the BSP. Some party leaders feel that this could be suicidal, since Dalits could also switch camps to the BJP like they did in 2014.