Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is the “only alternative” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, BSP state chief Vishwanath Pal has said. In an interview with ThePrint Sunday, Pal accused the BJP of “projecting the 2022 UP election as a contest between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in order to polarise the electorate”.
The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP is currently in power in UP, after winning the state assembly election for the second straight term last year. While the SP and its allies won the second highest number of seats, the BSP was reduced to just one seat.
Pal, who is from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) — believed to hold a vote share of around 40 per cent in UP — is an old BSP warhorse from the Ayodhya region. Party chief Mayawati appointed him state president last year in what was seen as a bid to woo the OBCs.
Pal also told ThePrint that the BSP — which was formed to represent Bahujans as a whole, but has Dalits as its core support base — wanted to replicate its performance of 2007. That year, the party had swept the UP polls with a 30 per cent vote share and formed a government on its own by rallying the OBCs, Dalits and Muslims behind it.
“Voting started in this country in 1951-1952 (first general elections) and the BSP was formed in 1984. For 32 years, the political participation of the backward communities was merely 1.5-2 per cent, despite the community having the highest population (in UP). Had the BSP not emerged in this country, there would have been no one to talk about the backward communities,” he asserted.
“The BSP’s slogan is ‘jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni bhagidaari’, thanks to (party founder) Kanshi Ramji and Behenji (as Mayawati is popularly known). With this catchphrase, several leaders have emerged from backward communities over the years and all such communities have got representation,” he added.
Referring to the ruling party, Pal said,“Before coming to power in UP, the BJP had claimed that that they would reduce inflation, give employment to the youth and good dues to farmers (for their produce), but nothing like that happened”.
“Today, the entire country and state are troubled by inflation, the youth are anxious about employment, and so are students and traders. Farmers are not getting correct dues and people are looking for an alternative. The BSP and Behenji can be the only alternative,” he said.
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‘Backward leaders in SP & BJP nurtured in BSP’
According to Pal, OBC leaders currently in the SP and BJP were first been nurtured in the BSP. “Otherwise, nobody used to bother about them,” he said.
When asked why OBCs and even Dalits were deserting the BSP, Pal said, “Their jumping ship means nothing. It is only about selfishness.”
Influential OBC leaders such as Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chouhan and Dharam Singh Saini were initially in the BSP before they switched allegiance to other parties.
When asked about the BSP delivering its worst-ever performance since 1991 in the 2022 UP polls by bagging a vote-share of just 12.88 per cent, Pal blamed it on the BJP’s “polarisation bid”.
“The BJP portrayed the state election as a fight between the BJP and the SP so that the Muslim community would side with the SP to defeat the BJP — which then went on to win the polls due to the polarisation of votes,” he explained.
“Misled by the BJP’s campaign, the people felt that the SP was coming to power. This led to some deserting the BSP, thinking they would get some malai to eat there (some share in power in the SP),” Pal added.
“But nothing like that happened,” he pointed out.
According to Pal, the SP and BJP’s “conspiracy” ahead of the 2022 polls “demoralised BSP workers”.
“Behenji does not field candidates in bypolls, but for the Azamgarh bypoll, which was held (in June 2022) soon after the assembly polls, she immediately fought the election to send the message that the BSP can never be finished,” he said.
Pal added that the “people of UP have understood that they were backstabbed and the machinery of the BJP had resorted to a false campaign”.
“Ahead of the 2022 polls, the BSP, a national party, was shown as a dummy while a regional party, the SP, was shown as the main competitor. The Muslims have also understood this,” he said.
‘BSP has a large vote base’
To a query about political pundits sounding alarm bells over the BSP’s future, and its plans ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pal said the “BSP has a large vote-base of 26 per cent (mostly Dalits), and the Muslim community and OBCs have also made up their minds in favour of the party”.
He explained that just as the party had formed a government in 2007, “without any coalition, on the strength of Muslims, Backward and Extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and justice-loving Brahmin-Kshatriya-Vaishya communities, in the same way the BSP will emerge as a large party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls”.
The BSP has of late been looking to woo the Muslim community, having appointed influential leader Imran Masood as its western UP in-charge last year, and inducting Shaista Parveen, wife of jailed gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, in January this year.
This comes ahead of UP municipal polls scheduled for this year and as the ruling BJP reaches out to the Pasmanda community, which is estimated to constitute about 80-85 per cent of the Muslim population in India.
“Let the SP or BJP claim anything, but today, Muslims and Bahujans are totally inclined towards the BSP. The SC/STs are already standing with us,” Pal told ThePrint when asked about the BJP’s Pasmanda outreach.
On the rival SP reviving demands for a caste census, Pal said “Behenji’s views are that a caste census should be held in the entire country”.
“Was the SP not in government ever? Why did it not talk about the caste survey then? Our leader Behenji has said that a caste census should happen at the country level and not just the state level,” he asserted.
‘Behenji to decide on alliances’
Pal echoed Mayawati’s stand that the BSP would fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls without entering into a coalition.
The BSP chief had on her 67th birthday in January this year declared that the BSP would not enter into an alliance with any other political party for the upcoming assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Pal told ThePrint that any decision on entering a coalition at the national level would be taken by the party chief.
Attacking the SP, which held its national executive meeting in West Bengal last month, Pal asserted that the party “has no support base in states other than UP”.
“It is the BSP that has a vote-base in other states. In Uttarakhand, we have a few MLAs, and in Punjab too, we have a sizeable vote-share. Similarly, in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Kerala and Rajasthan, the BSP has a considerable support base,” he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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