State Cabinet Minister Surendra Rakesh and MlA Haridas, who were suspended by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo on Friday, have categorically denied all the allegations levelled against them and have hinted that they would float new party if the BSP refuses to reconsider their decision.
Strengthening its arsenal against the State leadership, they alleged that the party is distributing lok Sabha tickets in lieu of money. BSP MlA Haridas alleged that on the one hand State leadership says that we are doing anti-party activities but in reality they are busy in anti-party activities. They are fielding weak candidates because they have sold tickets for lok Sabha election.
Reacting against the State BSP in-charge Ramachal Rajbhar, who had announced party supremo decision, Surendra Rakesh said that whosoever have made allegations against us have lost their mind for they are making baseless allegations against us. After Assembly election-2012 in the State, the BSP decided to extend support to the Congress-led coalition Government. BSP has three MlA’s in the State Assembly including Surendra Rakesh, Haridas and Sarbat Kareem Ansari, who won from Bhagwanpur, Jhabreda and Manglore respectively. Rakesh was made Cabinet Minister by BSP quota and Haridas enjoys clout equal to a Cabinet Minister. They did not bother to attend party functions and skipped Mayawati’s rally in lucknow in February-2014.
Since inception of Harish Rawat’s term as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, it is being presumed that he would convincingly merger of BSP in the Congress because he wants to give stability to the Congress-led State Government. Currently, the Congress Government is being supported by seven MlAs including three from BSP, three independent including Mantri Prasad Naithani, Harish Chandra Durgapal and Dinesh Dhanai and one UKD (P) Pritam Singh Panwar.
Haridwar is being considered as strong hold of BSP but since February 1, 2014, the Congress Government is putting all efforts to dent dalit vote bank. For instance, the State Government has decided to open two Maharshi Valmiki residential schools in Haridwar district and one each in other 12 districts of the State.
It would be pertinent to mention here that before Assembly election-2012, BSP supremo had suspended their MlA, Qazi Nizamuddin, on the charges of anti-party activities and later he contested the Assembly election-2012 on the Congress ticket. Similar situation has prevailed now. Political analysts said that ultimately both leaders would join the Congress before general election-2014 and they will be free from party whip. As BSP has three members in the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha and if two members form a new party then they would not be victim of anti defection law. By forming separate party they would be in position to bargain with the Congress as well.