Reviving her tried and tested formula of social engineering that forged the Dalit-Brahmin alliance, the Bahujan Samaj Party announced the first list of 36 lok Sabha candidates, giving almost 50 per cent tickets to Brahmins.
The list includes six sitting members of the lok Sabha and one of the Rajya Sabha.
“The BSP suffered a setback in the last polls because Brahmins abandoned the party. But in this regime, it is the Brahmins who have faced the maximum brunt of the Samajwadi Party Government’s misrule,” Mayawati said while justifying her decision to give tickets to Brahmins en bloc.
She said the Brahmins had got swayed by false promises of the SP leaders. “But now they are with us along with other upper caste members,” Mayawati said at a Press conference in lucknow on Thursday.
Though Mayawati, a Buddhist, asserted that she was not superstitious, she held her Press conference at the residence of Satish Mishra from where she had evolved her social engineering formula ahead of the 2007 Assembly election. Then too, she had addressed the media at the same venue in 2006, stitching the Dalit-Brahmin combine.
“Brahmins are with us because they know only the BSP can protect their interests,” the BSP chief declared.
When asked why her party had given tickets to those who had refused to contest the Assembly election, Mayawati said: “They refused to contest the Assembly polls as they wanted to give their hundred per cent in the lok Sabha election.”
The list of candidates announced on Thursday include former Shiv Sena leader and Babri demolition accused Pawan Pandey from Sultanpur. The CBI has charge-sheeted Pandey and the trial is underway.
New entrant RK Chaudhary has been fielded from Mohanlalganj seat in lucknow while Umed Singh, husband of dacoit Phoolan Devi, will contest fromShahjahanpur.
Former minister and accused in a disproportionate asset case, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi, has been selected for the Mirzapur seat. Tripathi was denied ticket by the party in the 2012 Assembly election in view of the corruption charges against him. He had unsuccessfully contested the Mirzapur Assembly seat as an Independent in 2012.
Senior BSP leader Ramveer Upadhyaya’s wife Seema, who is a sitting MP from Fatehpur Sikri, has been re-nominated for the seat while his MlC brother Mukul Upadhaya has been given ticket from Ghaziabad seat, which is currently represented by Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh.