The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday announced candidates for 101 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, completing the exercise for all but two of the 403 constituencies, fielding 12 more Muslim candidates this time to ensure Dalit-Muslim consolidation in a bid to wrest power from the Samajwadi Party.
Candidates for the two remaining seats in Sonebhadra district will be finalised after a decision is taken whether they are general or reserved for ST, the BSP said in a release here.
Out of the 403 seats up for grabs, the BSP had prepared a final list comprising 97 Muslim candidates (12 more than 2012), 87 Dalits and 106 OBCs, besides earmarking 113 seats for upper castes — Brahmins 66, Kshatriyas 36 and others 11.
Muslims in a fix
Since Muslims account for nearly 20 per cent of voters in the State, Ms. Mayawati decided to field more candidates belonging to that community. Muslims, who had by and large supported the Samajwadi Party in the 2012 elections, are in a quandary in view of the squabbles in the Yadav family and factional fight between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.
With a weak Samajwadi Party, Muslims will look for alternatives and Ms. Mayawati wants to be at the right place at the right time, say analysts.
If she manages to direct the entire Muslim vote her way, she could pose a tough challenge to the BJP and the SP, they believe.
Call to partymen
Before releasing the fourth list of candidates, Ms. Mayawati presided over a meeting of party office-bearers, leaders, legislators, MPs and party candidates where she told them to fan out in their constituencies and work for the BSP’s victory.
She asked party leaders to expose the Samajwadi Party government on ‘lawlessness’ and the Centre on demonetisation.
She took potshots at the Yadav family spat saying voters should not spoil their ballots by backing the Samajwadi Party as doing this would indirectly benefit the BJP in the polls.
Key fact
An analysis of the complete list released by the BSP brings out an interesting fact that it is not Dalits but the upper caste which has got the second biggest share after Muslims. — PTI
