Returning to its social engineering formula which won the party a majority for the first time in 2007 to form a government in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party is all set to launch a campaign to bring Brahmins back into the party fold before the 2022 UP Assembly elections.
The party will start the first phase of the campaign during the coming Navaratri festival. The party aims to hold conferences in districts during the week-long Navaratri festival.
For the last two months, BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra has been holding meetings with representatives from the Brahmin community from all districts at his office here. Sources said that the 73rd such meeting was held here on Tuesday.
The campaign, which seeks to attract Brahmin voters, will be spearheaded by Mishra and former minister Anant Mishra ‘Antu’, Nakul Dubey and Rangnath Mishra will be working with him, a senior BSP leader said.
According to the party, Brahmins are feeling neglected in the present Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party rule in UP and the BSP wants to capitalise this sentiment.
Brahmins had wholeheartedly supported the BSP in 2007 Assembly polls and elected Mayawati as the chief minister of the state. However, as per political experts, the Brahmins thereafter shifted from the BSP and went towards BJP.
The BSP wants a repeat of 2007, the leader said. Mayawati has also indicated a change of stance in recent months. A few days back, she said that Brahmins would be included in the BSP’s core organisational structure as well as the zonal level.
While tweeting on the Hathras incident, Mayawati said that Dalits women as well as those ‘’belonging to other castes’’ were feeling unsafe. With the choice of words, the BSP chief apparently wanted to show her sentiments for non-Dalits as well.
Mayawati had also announced construction of hospitals in the name of Brahmin icons once elected to power.
“Keeping in mind the shortcomings of the state and Central governments amid COVID-19 pandemic, if the BSP comes to power, we will create hospitals with modern facilities in the name of great saints,” Mayawati had said. However, the Samajwadi Party is critical of
the BSP’s sudden change of track.
Former minister and SP leader Abhishek Mishra said that during the BSP regime and thereafter, Mayawati never cared for the Brahmins and just showed her affection for vested interests.
He claimed that the Brahmins had realised that it was only the SP which would stand with them as both the BSP and the BJP had neglected the community.
According to several reports, Brahmins constitute 10 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s vote bank.