The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday pipped other parties in announcing the names of its candidates for western Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls in the first of the seven-phase elections in the State.
Significantly, of the 100 candidates announced, over one-third, 36, were Muslims. The community accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the State’s electorate and the BSP has been wooing them assiduously in the past months. There are 17 candidates from the Scheduled Castes in the list.
The party has already shortlisted the names of candidates for all the 403 seats, BSP supremo Mayawati had told a press conference recently.
Giving caste-wise details of the shortlisted candidates, she had said that 87 tickets will be given to Dalits, 97 to Muslims and 106 to OBCs. Of the 113 tickets earmarked for upper castes, Brahmins will get 66, Kshatriyas 36, and Kayasthas, Vaishyas and Punjabis 11, she had said.
Alleging that minorities were facing bias under the Modi government, Mayawati had cautioned Muslims that voting for Samajwadi Party or Congress would only help the BJP and sought their support “to stop” the saffron party. “Muslims should not waste their vote as there is infighting in Samajwadi Party, and the Congress lacks a voter base in Uttar Pradesh,” Mayawati had said.
Divided Muslim votes translate to gains for the BJP, while a consolidation will change the poll arithmetic as minorities play a crucial role in at least 125 of 403 constituencies.
Muslims are considered the traditional votebank of the ruling Samajwadi Party, and the concern over the SP family feud has been voiced by several top clerics including, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid and Maulana Salman Nadvi of Lucknow-based Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema.
Mayawati had also accused Opposition parties of levelling “baseless” charges of casteism against the BSP. “During all the four governments, BSP has worked in the interest of all castes besides the Dalits,” she had said, adding her party has also demanded quota on economic basis for the upper castes both in and outside Parliament