After a dismal showing in Uttar Pradesh elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party has wasted no time and is back to the drawing board to stitch together a rainbow coalition of castes with a special focus on the Other Backward Communities, which observers feel deserted it in large numbers.
The BSP had experimented with a Dalit-Muslim combination for the Assembly polls even as a number of leaders belonging to the backward castes jumped ship to join the BJP.
The party has re-organised its community-based bhaichara (brotherhood) committees and assigned duties to top leaders to increase presence among various castes.
Office bearers
The rainbow caste alliances are also reflected in the party’s choices for posts in the legislature. Senior leader Lalji Verma has been nominated leader of the Legislature Party. Mr. Verma, a four-time MLA and former minister, is a Kurmi, among the largest backward castes in the State.
After Swami Prasad Maurya, an OBC, quit the party last year to join the BJP just months before the election, BSP chief Mayawati had nominated Gaya Charan Dinkar, a fellow Jatav (Dalit) as the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Dinkar however, lost his seat in the polls. Uma Shankar Singh, MLA from Rasara in Ballia, has been appointed deputy leader in the Vidhan Sabha. Mr. Singh is a Kshatriya and one of the few BSP MLAs who won with a handsome margin.
One of the BSP’s Brahmin faces and old loyalist Ramveer Upadhyaya has been named chief whip, while Hargovind Bhargava, a Pasi (Dalit), and Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali, a Muslim MLA from Azamgarh, have been made whips of the legislature party.
To increase outreach among various castes, BSP chief Mayawati has also handed out responsibilities to more than a dozen leaders. Sources said a special focus would be on the 17 most backward castes (MBCs), which have steadily deserted the BSP over the last decade.
“The process of distributing responsibilities will continue. We have been asked to increase presence of the party among these castes and approach them with new formats,” said a senior BSP leader from Bundelkhand.
Banking on Kanshiram
Party sources also said leaders have been instructed to gather at least 100 “influential or active persons” belonging to the castes assigned to them from each of the 403 Vidhan Sabhas. Old speeches of BSP founder Kanshiram would also be played in every village to connect youth with him. “For that purpose, various coordinators have been asked to purchase projectors,” said a source, who attended Ms. Mayawati’s meeting of elected legislators and co-coordinators held in Lucknow on Thursday.
While Rajya Sabha member Satish Mishra continues to be responsible for connecting Brahmins to the BSP, Mayawati-aide Nasimuddin Siddiqui and his son Afzal Siddiqui will do the job among Muslims.
Uma Shankar Singh will be in-charge of bringing Thakurs into the BSP fold in Purvanchal, while Thakur Jaiveer Singh will play the same role in west UP.
Ram Achal Rajbhar, besides holding the post of State president, is in-charge of connecting with Rajbhars, a most backward caste. Similarly, Lalji Verma is assigned the Kurmi caste, while former Leader of the Opposition Gaya Charan Dinkar will work among the Prajapatis, also an MBC.
Former MLC Virendra Chauhan is in-charge of the noniya chauhans (a backward caste), R.S. Kushwaha, of the Maurya and Kushwaha communities, former MLC Lal Chand Nishad has been given the riverine Mallah communities while the Kashyap community (OBC) will be under Ram Murti, a party coordinator from Bareilly.
Apart from reorganising the party, the BSP has also plans to stage demonstrations on the 11th of every month on their opposition to EVMs. The BSP has alleged that its poor showing in the elections was due to tampering of EVMs. The protests will be staged in every district headquarters in U.P. and other State capitals.
Meanwhile, the resignations from the party continue. Former Minister Kamla Kant Gautam and former OSD to Ms. Mayawati, Gangaram Ambedkar, have quit the party accusing the chief of straying from the path of Kanshiram.
