The Bahujan Samaj Party has finally abandoned its policy of a brahmin-dalit social engineering and will now focus on bringing Muslims into the party fold.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has finally abandoned its policy of a brahmin-dalit social engineering and will now focus on bringing Muslims into the party fold.
BSP president Mayawati, according to sources, has asked senior party leaders to reach out to Muslims and underline the fact that Muslims have been safest under the BSP governments in Uttar Pradesh.
“Ms Mayawati now feels that promoting brahmins was a mistake since they were socially not compatible with dalits but Muslims are definitely more compatible with dalits, socially and economically. We will now start a campaign to focus on Muslim-dominated areas,” said a party coordinator.
To begin with, the BSP president has assigned the charge of four divisions, including the all-important Varanasi and Azamgarh, to Rajya Sabha MP Munqad Ali.
Former minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui was asked to address the party functions in Lucknow on B.R. Ambedkar’s death anniversary on Sunday while Ms Mayawati remained in Delhi.
Incidentally, Mr Nasemuddin Siddiqui is now virtually the number two in the party, replacing Mr Satish Chandra Misra who has not been very visible in the party programmes of late.
The BSP is also replacing majority of the Brahmin candidates for the 2017 elections with Muslims. In 2007, the BSP had come to power in Uttar Pradesh with the mass support of brahmins. To win over the brahmin community, the BSP even changed its slogan from the earlier “tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro joote char” to “haathi nahi Ganesh hai, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai”.
Mr Satish Chandra Misra became the Brahmin face of the BSP and the party had fielded 90 brahmin candidates in the 2007 Assembly elections to reaffirm its alliance with the community.
However in the 2012 Assembly elections and then in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the upper castes deserted he BSP and moved on to greener pastures.
