Buoyed by the response to the ‘Prabuddh Varg’ (intellectual class) conventions in Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Ambedkar nagar etc, and banking heavily on the social engineering formula in the coming UP Assembly polls, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati decided to have the maximum outreach amongst the Brahmin community and fast track the process so that other rival parties do not outrun and outwit its endeavour.
Apprehending that parties like Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and even Congress, might and will try to play the Brahmin card, Mayawati on Wednesday announced that now the BSP would hold several such meetings in different places on the same day. Interestingly, to avert any action from the Election Commission of India, the BSP also changed the name of its meeting from Brahmin Sammelan to Prabuddha Varg Sammelan.
As per a BSP communique released on Wednesday, the party will start the campaign of the second phase of Prabuddha Varg Sammelan from the city of Kanha -- Vrindavan -- from July 31. Many tall leaders of the BSP, including Satish Chandra Mishra, will be involved in this. BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra said that before inaugurating the Brahmin convention at Vrindavan, the party leaders and workers would pay obeisance in the Banke Bihari temple.
The BSP had started the first phase of its Brahmin outreach from the city of Lord Ram - Ayodhya. While addressing the Brahmin conference in Prayagraj, Satish Mishra had lashed out at the BJP as well as Samajwadi Party for not developing Vrindavan and had accused the regimes of being apathetic towards the people of Vrindavan and Mathura. He also did not spare Jitin Prasada, considered the Brahman face in Congress before he joined the BJP recently, and said that Prasada had deceived the Brahmins and was an opportunist.
In the second phase, the BSP will hold such conventions in 24 districts between July 31 and August 14. The phase will start with a meeting a Mathura, followed by Agra on August 1, in Kasganj, Firozabad, Etah on August 2, Aligarh, Hathras on August 3, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly on August 4, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur on August 5, Budaun, Moradabad on August 7, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar on August 8, Sambhal, Amroha on August 9, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad on August 10, Saharanpur, Shamli on August 11, Bulandshahr on August 13 and finally Noida on August 14.
On Tuesday, Mayawati said that the success of the ‘Parabuddha Varg’ (intellectual class) conventions organized by the BSP was indicative of the faith people had in her party and claimed that this had made her political opponents uneasy.
“The enthusiastic participation in the Prabuddha Varg conventions, which has come into discussion as Brahmin Sammelans, is proof that people have conscious faith in the BSP. Heartfelt thanks to all,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.
“The caravan, which started from Ayodhya on July 23 with the darshan of Ram Lalla, is continuously progressing through the districts of Ambedkarnagar, Prayagraj, due to which the opposition parties have lost their sleep and are now using various types of tactics to stop it. Be careful of them,” Mayawati said in another tweet.