The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh is apparently losing faith in Thakurs who are, one by one, being shown the exit door.
BSP MP Dhananjay Singh was suspended from the party on Wednesday and a day earlier, legislator Ashok Chandel was expelled from the BSP for alleged anti-party activities. The BSP had earlier announced that it would not renominate Dhananjay Singh’s father, Rajdev Singh, who is the BSP MLA from Rari in Jaunpur.
The BSP has trimmed the status of another powerful Thakur minister Badshah Singh who had earlier been entrusted the responsibility of bring Thakurs into the BSP fold in Bundelkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The anguished minister later announced that he would not contest the upcoming Assembly elections.
The BSP has further denied tickets to Jitendra Singh Babloo from Bikapur in Faizabad and Chandra Bhadra Singh a.k.a. Sonu Singh from Isauli in Sultanpur.
Jitendra Singh Babloo hit the headlines in 2009 for his alleged involvement in the burning of UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s house in Lucknow while Sonu Singh had quit the Samajwadi Party in 2009 and had got re-elected in a byelection on a BSP ticket.
Sher Bahadur Singh, BSP MLA from Jalalpur in Ambedkar Nagar, is another Thakur leader who has “quit before he could be shown the door” and has now joined the Samajwadi Party. Party sources said BSP MLA from Danapur in Chandauli, Sushil Singh, is also being denied the ticket for the Assembly polls and will soon be given the marching orders.
Interestingly, all the Thakur leaders who have been thrown out of the BSP are the ones having criminal antecedents. A BSP minister said, “Those who have been shown the door are the ones who refused to reform themselves by checking their criminal activities. We gave them a chance but they did not mend their way. We did not expel them because they were Thakurs.”
Significantly, the BSP’s disdain for Thakurs dates back to 1997 when the party had split to save the Kalyan Singh government after the BSP pulled out of the coalition. At that time of the 22 BSP MLAs who had walked out, 18 were Thakurs. Later in 2002, the two legislators who were arrested for plotting to topple the Mayawati government — Raja Bhaiyya and Dhananjay Singh — were also both Thakurs.
By weeding out tainted Thakurs from the BSP, Ms Mayawati now wants to refurbish her party’s image and also renew her ties with Brahmins who remain socially at war with Thakurs in the state and were apparently unhappy with the importance being given to Thakurs in the BSP.