It is 'two much' for Mayawati in the Western region of UP

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Published on: 3 Feb 2017 9:00 AM GMT
It is two much for Mayawati in the Western region of UP
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It is 'two much' for Mayawati in the Western region of U P

Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party ,which has much at stake in this year's assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh due to dismal performance in the previous Lok Sabha polls, is facing serious threats from two parties in the western part which will vote in the first phase : the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Bhartiya Janta Party.

The reason is that situation this time is much different in the region than 2012 when the last assembly elections were held. A sizeable number of voters belonging to the Jat caste which accounts for 17 per cent the total population had supported her in previous polls. Backed by a good many Muslims and majority of Dalits she had bagged 29 of the total 73 assembly seats in the area although she drew a blank in 2014 parliament election.

Now, many of them have gone against her because of her major shift towards the Muslim community. She has allotted the maxkimum number of seats to the Muslims in this election when Jats have totally gone against the community after the Muzaffarrnagar riots in 2013.

The Khap panchayat whose writ runs in many villagers in this part has also disfavoured her for the same reason. Voters in these villagers who were not fully behind the RLD leader Ajit Singh in the past are likely to go for him this time. The party had won only nine seats in the previous assembly election.

At one time the party had got the full backing of the caste but the situation changed after he began spending more time in Delhi than the area and party-hopping. He has allied with a number of parties in the state and never stuck to one for long. Even on the eve of this election he had talks with two or three parties.

He was hobnobbing with the Samajwadi Party at the end but the talks ended in a failure because he was insisting on a larger number of seats than it was ready to offer. Party insiders say that he was demanding 40 seats out of the total 403 in the state. Clearly, he is getting Jat support for some other reasons.

In addition to Ajit the BSP supremo has to worry about firebrand BJP leader Adiyanath. He is trying his best to polarise Hindu voters on communal lines and wean away Dalits who form her main support base.

What may upset the party is that Muslims who account for 26 per cent of the population and who had supported her in the previous assembly election are divided this time. A sizeable number of them may go in favour of the Samajwadi Party which has development as the main election agenda and shouting the slogan Kam Bolta Hai loud in the area.

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