BSP candidates likely to change

The proverbial sword in now dangling over the heads of the candidates-in-waiting for the Assembly polls in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

BSP president Mayawati has convened a meeting of all party MLAs and coordinators in Delhi on May 20 to take stock of the situation.

She will make a seat- to-seat assessment of the progress made by party candidates and those who have failed to make an impact in their constituencies will be replaced.

The BSP, it may be recalled, had finalised candidates for over 300 seats in UP in 2014, immediately after the Lok Sabha elections. Candidates on the remaining seats were cleared in 2015 and almost all candidates have already campaigned in their respective constituencies for over a year now even though the party has not made their names official as yet.

“This is the right time to review each seat because if the candidate has failed to connect with the voters till now, chances are that he will not be able to do so in the next few months. The party chief is determined to replace such candidates because each seat is crucial for the party,” said a party functionary. The BSP president, sources said, is upset over the changing political scenario in Uttar Pradesh and the increasing focus of BJP and SP on OBCs and dalits and their attempts to erode her vote base.