Frustrated at the dismal show of party in the recently concluded assembly elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati has cracked whip by removing the state party President Brigurasion Rao. The Party has appointed Chaudhary Charan Singh as the new party president. Incidentally Singh would be the sixth President of the state unit in last three years.
Talking to the Pioneer, Singh who is a retired railway services officer said that revamping of the party’s organizational structure would be one of his top priorities. He said that he would undertake a tour of the state and reconstitute sector, polling booth and Vidhan Sabha committees of the party. Chaudhary said the focus of the party would be to win at least two lok Sabha seats in the parliamentary elections of 2019. He attributed the victory of the BJP in recently concluded assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to tampering in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
One of the major tasks before the new President would be to keep the party cadre intact. The recent assembly elections have shown that BJP has made major inroads into the Dalit vote bank of the BSP.
Another major challenge for Chaudhary would be to ensure that the vote share of the party is increased. The vote share of BSP was consistently on rise from last three assembly elections took a plunge in the recently concluded elections.
In the first elections (2002) after creation of separate state of Uttarakhand, BSP won 07 seats and had a vote share of 10.9 percent. In the elections of 2007, the party won from 08 seats and further increased its vote share to 11.8 percent.
The assembly elections saw a decrease in the number of seats for BSP as it was able to win in only three seats but despite of the setback the party increased its vote share to 12.2 percent.
The party received two successive setbacks in the parliamentary elections of 2014 and assembly elections of 2017. In the recently concluded assembly elections the party drew a blank in number of seats won and secured a dismal 7 percent of total polled vote in Uttarakhand.