In a bid to test the political waters ahead of the coming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, BSP supremo Mayawati has tasked her trusted lieutenants to gauge the public mood in the state by soliciting their “free and frank” opinion on political preferences. To begin with, the BSP cadre has been directed to survey 100 selected Assembly constituencies for each caste group, which will later be expanded to cover all 403 Assembly segments before the election.
A similar survey before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls had predicted 20-30 of the state’s 80 seats for the ruling BSP. The party eventually bagged 19, close to the lower range of the survey.
Ms Mayawati wants a survey done far ahead of the state polls so that she has time to take corrective action based on the findings.
With the BSP losing most reserved Scheduled Caste seats in the Lok Sabha election, Ms Mayawati has included many predominantly dalit constituencies among the 100 to be surveyed.