Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati expelling two senior leaders indicates that the BSP in Uttar Pradesh is faced with rapid erosion of its vote base among Dalits and Backwards.
While several leaders have left the party in the recent past, the BSP chief also expelled a number of party leaders on one charge or another. On Thursday, Mayawati expelled BSP legislature party leader Lalji Verma and former state BSP chief Ramachal Rajbhar from the party for alleged anti-party activities during the recently held Panchayat polls in the state. Both of them are senior OBC leaders and were ministers in the previous Mayawati government.
“With these two senior most leaders gone, where is the second-rung leadership in the BSP. We have only Satish Chandra Mishra, who is just a ‘Yes Man’ to Mayawati,” commented a BSP law maker
The recent expulsions assume importance because UP will go to polls in the next seven months and now the party was left with only six legislators in the UP Assembly. In the 2017 elections, the BSP had won 19 seats of which, 11 turned rebel.
One such rebel and MLA from Bhinga constituency in Shrawasti, Aslam Raini said that this round of expulsion was the beginning of the end of the BSP in Uttar Pradesh. “The party has lost base and now Mayawati, who was Chief Minister thrice, will be reduced to non-entity in the next Assembly election. Mayawati believes many leaders will join BSP, but the way she behaves with senior leaders, one will think twice before joining BSP,” he said. Raini had revolted against the party brass and attended the special session of the UP Legislature on October 2, 2019.
Though the BSP said in its statement that two senior leaders were expelled for anti-party activities, insiders said that there were indications that these two leaders were set to join Samajwadi Party.
“To save the party from embarrassment, Mayawati expelled the two leaders,” he said. Besides, in the recent past, many senior BSP leaders have left the party. The list includes the names of Naseemuddin Sididiqui, RK Chaudhry, former MLA Ravindra Molhu, former Meerut Mayor Sunita Varma, former MLA Yogesh Verma, senior leader Sunil Chittor, former MLA Kalicharan Suman, Narain Signh Suman, Tilakchand Ahirwar, Veeru Suman, Bhartendu Arun, Malkhan Singh Vyas, Kamal Gautam, Prem Chand and Vikram Singh.
Majority of those who were expelled are Dalits. “With these expulsions what message is Mayawati trying to give out to the Dalits,” asked a Dalit leader in the party.
Sources said that in several districts of the state, BSP leaders have either been expelled or have left the party. In the last two years, 17 BSP leaders from Pratapgarh, including former Patti Assembly constituency in-charge RK Bhim joined the SP. Former BSP minister Ghura Ram, former Mau BSP district chief Ashok Gautam, former state BSP president Dayaram Pal and former Ballia district chief, Mithailal Bharati also left the BSP, accusing the party of deviating from the ideals of BR Ambedkar and its founder, Kanshi Ram.
BSP’s politics revolves around Dalits, which is approximately 21 per cent of the total population of Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati is eyeing Muslims, who account for 19 per cent of the population, by installing Guddu Jamali as the Leader of the BSP legislature party in the Assembly.
“Jamaali is no match to Lalji Verma or Nasimuddin Siddiqui who were shown the door by Mayawati. The vote base of the party is eroding fast and such decisions could only accelerate the slide and prove detrimental for the BSP,” said political analyst in Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS), Lucknow, Nomita P Kumar.