Bsp now focuses on reserved seats

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Elderly voters leave after casting their votes at a polling booth during the first phase of the UP Assembly polls in Ayodhya

In a mid-election shift of strategy, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has now decided to concentrate on the 85 reserved seats, 28 of which have been newly created during the delimitation process.
The party feels that by focusing on reserved seats, the BSP can derive maximum advantage and consolidate its dalit vote base for the remaining six phases of the elections. The party knows that the issue of building park and memorials for dalit icon can be best encashed in these dalit-dominated constituencies by “igniting the spark and create a fire for self respect among dalits”. “Opposition parties are using the memorials and statues to attack the BSP but in reserved constituencies, we can turn it into a matter of dalit pride. If we can win the maximum number from the reserved seat, it will automatically push up our total tally. Henceforth, we will pay extra attention to these constituencies,” said a senior BSP minister.
Interestingly, despite being a dalit-based party, the BSP has never managed to put up an above average performance in the reserved constituencies. Except in 2007, when the BSP won 61 of the 89 reserved seats that existed in the pre-delimitation era, the party has won less than 50 cent seats in this segment.
For instance, in 2002, it was the Samajwadi Party that walked away with a lion’s share by winning 36 seats while the BSP lagged behind with only 24 seats.
Earlier, In 1996 the BJP emerged at the top with 35 seats while the BSP had to remain content with only 20 and to think that this was immediately after Ms Mayawati became chief minister for the first time (in 1995).
“The trend denotes that the BSP is not a favourite for other dalit sub-castes if and when they have a choice of dalit candidates from other parties. It is wrong to assume that the BSP is a party for dalits across the board. It is only the jatav sub-caste, to which Mayawati belongs, that stands rock solid behind the BSP. If the party did well in the reserved seats in 2007, it was because upper caste supported the BSP then,” says political scientist R.K. Dixit. The dalit population in Uttar Pradesh is around 22 per cent of which jatavs constitute 56 per cent while the remaining include pasi (16 per cent), dhobi, kori and valmiki (15 per cent) and the other sub castes.