The seventh and final phase of the ongoing parliamentary elections is quite tough for the Bahujan Samaj Party, especially as one of its sitting MPs has switched his loyalty and the other has been suspended from the party.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the elephant had overpowered everyone in Ghosi and Ghazipur. Although the party has taken a lot of caution in the selection of candidates this time also, it will not be easy for the BSP to repeat its previous performance in the changed equations. The BSP had contested the last Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The BSP had fielded its candidates from five constituencies while the SP had fielded its candidates on eight seats. The BSP had won the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat with 51.2 per cent vote share and the Ghosi seat with 50.3 per cent vote share. The elephant was in second place in Deoria with 32.57 per cent vote share, in Bansgaon with 40.57 per cent and in Salempur with 38.52 per cent vote share. These figures show that the BSP had benefited from the alliance. This time, Afzal Ansari , the sitting BSP MP from Ghazipur is contesting the election on SP ticket while Ghosi MP Atul Kumar has been expelled from the party by the BSP supremo. This time the party has fielded its candidates on all 13 seats going to polls in the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections. BSP supremo Mayawati has expressed confidence in Dr Umesh Kumar Singh from Ghazipur and former MP Balkrishna Chauhan from Ghosi.
The BSP has used its social engineering very well in the selection of candidates. The elephant may not be able to show wonders, but it will definitely increase the difficulties of the rivals. The party has fielded Athar Jamal Lari from Varanasi, who is trying to prevent the Muslim vote bank from going towards the SP-Congress alliance. Similarly, Muslims have been given tickets in Maharajganj and Gorakhpur. Not only this, Yadav candidates have been fielded from Deoria and Ballia constituencies. In the last election, the BSP had given a ticket to Vinod Kumar Jaiswal in Deoria, He was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ramapati Ram Tripathi by about 2.5 lakh votes. This time Shashank Mani Tripathi is contesting on BJP ticket.
The BSP has given tickets to its former state president Bhim Rajbhar in Salempur. In the last election, Ravinder was BSP’s candidate from Salempur and he was defeated by BJP’s Rajesh Kumar Mishra by about 1.13 lakh votes. Bhim Rajbhar seems to be increasing BJP’s challenges. On the other hand, Dr Ram Samjhu has been given a chance in place of Sadal Prasad from Bansgaon reserved seat. Sadal Prasad is in the fray on Congress ticket, while BJP has again fielded its three-time MP Kamlesh Paswan. BJP’s challenges will increase here too.
