The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party is unfazed by reports of being voted out of power. The party is confident that the young voters among dalits would suitably compensate for the anti-incumbency factor prevailing against the Mayawati government.
“We are not retaliating when political parties claim that they will get the advantage of increased vote percentage and the entry of young voters in the electoral college. We are aware that the BSP’s strength has also increased in recent years and a large chunk of the young voters belong to dalit community and will vote for us because Ms Mayawati has given them the opportunity to hold their heads high in society,” said a senior BSP functionary.
The reason for the BSP’s exuberance is obvious. In 2007, when Ms Mayawati became chief minister, she appointed Ramhet Bharti as minister of election affairs. At that time, no one evinced any interest in his portfolio and many dismissed it off as a decorative portfolio.
“Bharti, as minister of election affairs, was assigned the task of enrolling young dalit voters in every constituency, ensuring that they get their voter identity cards prepared and their names are properly enrolled in the voters’ lists. He used his offices to facilitate the process and, today, we can claim that we have enrolled 5,000 to 25,000 young dalit voters in almost every Assembly segment,” the functionary explains.
The BSP believes that the young dalit voter is “eternally grateful” to Ms Mayawati for allowing them to walk in society with their heads held high and opening new vistas for them. Introducing this correspondent to a young dalit voter, Lal Singh, the BSP functionary says, “Lal Singh’s father worked as a ‘safai karamchari’ all his life but this boy is now wanting to try his luck in civil services and this is what ‘Behenji’ has done for them — given them the license to dream.”
The BSP strategists are confident that any depletion in votes due to the anti-incumbency factor would be suitably compensated by the young voters in the community.