The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may have taken lead over Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by announcing its list of 50 candidates for the Assembly elections but the party remains a non-serious contender in State politics with presence limited to Haridwar district and other areas in the plains.
The BSP on Saturday had announced its first list of candidates for the assembly elections. The list contains 15 Dalit and nine Muslim candidates who form the core of party’s vote bank in the State. Another important feature of this list is that the party has banked on new faces this time.
The BSP is a considerable force in Haridwar district from where it won three assembly seats in the elections of 2012. Apart from Haridwar the party has pockets of influence in Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts. Haridwar district with a population of about 4.5 lakh Muslim and 2.5 Dalit voters holds the key for success of the party in the state. The Dalit- Muslim combine forms the basis of the party’s election strategy in the State. In Haridwar the party won five assembly seats in the elections of the year 2002 and improved with six seats in the assembly elections of 2007. However the graph of party’s popularity took a dip in the elections of the 2012 and the party managed to win from only from Bhagwanpur, Jhabrera and Manglaur assembly seats. Outside Haridwar BSP is strong in Udham Singh Nagar district where it won Sitarganj and Pantnagar- Gadarpur seats in the elections of 2002 and 2012. However the party could not maintain the performance in the election of 2012. The party suffered a major jolt in the Modi wave during the general elections of 2014 where its vote share dipped to all time low of only 4.71 percent. The party now claims that it has regained its influence on its traditional voters and the ensuing assembly elections would show unexpected results in favor of BSP.
The State president of the party Brigurasion Rao told The Pioneer that the party would announce the names of remaining twenty candidates within two days. He claimed the party is targeting some assembly constituencies in mountainous areas of the state from where its candidates would win. He however refused to divulge the names of these constituencies.