The leaders of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttarakhand are confident of having polled their best yet in the Assembly elections of the State. The party leaders are claiming that traditional voters of the party came to vote in large numbers in the just concluded elections and the results would show the increment in number of seats.
The President of state unit of party Brigurashan Rao told the Pioneer that he is receiving positive feedback from different parts of the state. He claimed that the party would be able to win large number of seats in these elections. The party leaders are hopeful that the party would be able to win ten to fifteen seats in the fourth assembly election and would be in a King maker’s position. It is worth mentioning here that BSP played key role in propping up a Congress government in the state after the elections of 2012. The party was part of Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) which supported the Congress.
This time the party leaders are hoping that its candidates are in position to win from Khanpur, laksar, Manglaur, Jwalapur and Piran Kaliyar in Hardiwar district. The party is also hoping to win some seats in Udham Singh Nagar district.
Haridwar district with a population of about 4.5 lakh Muslim and 2.5 lakh Dalit voters is important for the success of Dalit- Muslim combine forged by the party in the state. Here BSP won five and six seats in the elections of 2002 and 2007 respectively. In the elections of 2012 however BSP was able to win from Jhabreda, Bhagwanpur and Manglaur. Outside Haridwar, the BSP is perceived to be strong in Udham Singh Nagar district where it won Sitarganj and Pantnagar- Gadarpur seats in the elections of 2002 and 2007.
The political observers are of view that the BSP has been able to consistently increase its vote share in past assembly elections. In the elections of 2002 BSP cornered 10.9 percent of votes and increased its share to 11.8 in the elections of 2007. The party won seven and eight seats respectively in these elections. In the elections of 2012 BSP won only three seats but its vote share increased to 12.2 percent. This time the party leaders are expecting to further increase the vote percentage with best ever performance till date in term of number of seats won.