BSP has made a big bet by fielding more Muslim candidates than SP in UP civic elections

The electoral board has been laid for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh civic elections. Before the Lok Sabha elections to be held within a year, the performance of various political parties in the local body elections will give a lot of political signals. It is true that the circumstances and issues of municipal elections and Lok Sabha elections are completely different, but the party which will be successful in making headway in these elections will be successful in putting psychological pressure on the voters to a great extent with the help of political ‘mind game’. Will remain Although in many body elections, the main contest was seen between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, but this time the Bahujan Samaj Party has made tremendous preparations to break into the Muslim vote bank of the Samajwadi Party by fielding a large number of Muslim candidates, while There was a time when the BSP did not even contest the civic elections on its own symbol, but this time it has given all its strength to dominate the civic elections.

The BSP has made such a bet which has made it difficult for the BJP and especially for the SP. The Samajwadi Party contests and wins elections with the support of a strong vote bank of Yadav-Muslims, but the BSP often manages to woo the Muslim votes out of it. The BSP is going to do the same thing this time too with vigor. In the first phase of elections which are to be held on May 04, BSP can create thorns in the way of SP by betting on 60 percent Muslim candidates. However, BSP denies this. It is said that Muslims have seen by living with SP. Nothing was achieved, that’s why he has come towards BSP. This was also proved in the recently held by-elections to the Lok Sabha. In Azamgarh, BSP had got a good amount of Muslim votes, even though BSP could not win, but SP also had to face defeat. Experts are also saying that BSP’s equation is the biggest hit. In the municipal elections, BSP has given 60 percent tickets for the post of mayor to Muslim candidates in the first phase. April 17 was the last day for filing nomination papers. A large number of prescriptions were filled on this day. On the last day, 93 candidates filed papers for the post of mayor in 10 municipal corporations, while 4,092 candidates filed nomination papers for the post of corporator. After this it became clear that BSP has fielded a large number of Muslim candidates. BSP chief Mayawati has clearly expressed her intention that she will work firmly on the Muslim-Dalit equation. The party is hopeful that if the Dalit and Muslim voters come together, the BSP can sail through on many seats. After brainstorming on all the seats, the BSP released the list of candidates for the post of mayor on the last day of filing nomination papers for the first phase.

According to the information, even though the list was released on April 17, some of these candidates had already filled nomination papers by taking symbols. In the first phase, elections will be held for the post of mayor on ten seats. The BSP has cleared its maths by fielding six out of ten Muslim candidates. In these six seats, the entire focus is going to be on the Dalit-Muslim alliance. The BSP think tank has the intention of making the fight between it and the SP tough on the Muslim-majority seats. Talking about the last elections, in the elections held for the post of mayors in the above mentioned ten municipal corporations, the BSP was seen in the main contest only at three places. Only in Agra, Jhansi and Saharanpur did BSP candidates finish second last year. In seven contests, BSP candidates were not in direct contest. Particularly, out of the six corporations in which BSP has fielded Muslim candidates this time, in four out of them, BSP candidates could not even make it to the top three last time. In Firozabad, Prayagraj, Moradabad and Varanasi, the BSP could not even reach the third position. BSP’s candidates for ten corporations include Lata from Agra, Raja Mohtasim Ahmed from Mathura, Rukhsana Begum from Firozabad, Bhagwan Das Phule from Jhansi, Khadija Masood from Saharanpur, Shaheen Bano from Lucknow, Subhash Chandra Majhi from Varanasi, Sayeed Ahmed from Prayagraj, Moradabad. Mohammad Yameen from and Naval Kishore Nathani from Gorakhpur.

On the other hand, this time also BJP did not come forward to field Muslim candidates. In the list released by him, Dr. Manglesh Srivastava from Gorakhpur, Umesh Chandra from Prayagraj and Ashok Tiwari from PM Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi have been made the mayor’s candidate. The party has fielded Kamini Rathore from Firozabad, Hemlata Diwakar from Agra, Sushma Kharkwal from Lucknow. BJP has nominated Dr. Ajay Kumar from Saharanpur, Vinod Agarwal from Mathura-Vrindavan, Chaturbhaj Arya from Jhansi. BJP has bet on new faces by cutting tickets of many existing mayors and has also taken care of the caste equation. The party has fielded six out of ten candidates from the upper caste community, while Dalits and OBCs have been fielded only from the seats reserved for them. In view of its core vote bank and the political equation of the city, the party has expressed the biggest trust on the upper caste community. BJP has not given tickets to most of its current mayors and has fielded new faces in their place and has given importance to old and loyal leaders associated with the organization. In such a situation, it has to be seen whether BJP will be able to repeat its old performance?

Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had announced the names of candidates for the post of Mayor for eight districts including Lucknow. SP has made Vandana Mishra the mayor candidate from Lucknow. Similarly, Kajal Nishad from Gorakhpur, Ajay Srivastava from Prayagraj, Raghuveer Chaudhary from Jhansi, Seema Pradhan from Meerut, Archana Verma from Shahjahanpur, famous Fatima from Firozabad and Ashish Pandey from Ayodhya seat have been made mayor candidates.

-Ajay Kumar