Mayawati launches power campaign

With the ruling Samaj-wadi Party embroiled in a family feud, BSP supremo Mayawati is all set to launch her campaign to wrest power in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP supremo will launch her election campaign on August 21 from Agra, while she is also set to go to Azamgarh on August 28 to send the message to dalits and Muslims to unite in her bid to oust the SP from power in the state.

The BSP strategist noted that Ms Mayawati would seek to hit on her campaign plank of deteriorating law and order situation in the state, while the ruling SP seeks to embrace the bahubalis (Mukhtar Anasari of the Qaumi Ekta Dal) in its ranks. While the BJP, SP, and the Congress have already hit the campaign trails, the BSP had been waiting for an opportune time to launch its poll campaign.

“Ms Mayawati will begin her election campaign from Agra on August 21 and afterwards she will hold a rally at Azamgarh on August 28. She will also go to Saharanpur subsequently,” said a senior BSP functionary.

The BSP strategist noted that Ms Mayawati has strategically chosen the places to launch her campaign. Agra is known as the stronghold of her Jatav constituency, which has stayed loyal to her over the years. “The growing atrocities against dalits in the name of cow protection is an issue with which the Jatavs in Agra and adjoining areas connect with easily,” the functionary said.

The dalit consolidation is being aimed at with the Agra launch of the BSP campaign, and is also to counter the BJP’s bid to make inroads into Ms Mayawati’s core constituency,” added the BSP functionary.

The SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is a Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh, which is also a place with a lot of political significance for the Muslim voters in the state.

“Ms Mayawati has chosen both Azamgarh and Saharanpur to send the message to the Muslim community that the ruling SP has marginalised them in the recent years. The dalit-Muslim consolidation will be key to the aims of Ms Mayawati to wrest power in Lucknow in the state elections in 2017,” said the BSP functionary.

The BSP is aiming to corner the ruling SP over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. “People have an apparent sense of insecurity in the state. Even the SP chief has openly admitted that his party workers had been indulging in land grab. The BSP’s key poll plank will be the law and order situations in the state,” said the BSP functionary.