The Bahujan Samaj Party, a fading force in Mandal politics in Hindi heartland, appears keen to reinvent itself ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and to remain relevant the party’s supremo Mayawati has shown signs of revisiting her rigid stand of “going it alone”. Party sources said the BSP chief has started showing greater flexibility in looking for like-minded, smaller and regional players to expand its footprint beyond Uttar Pradesh and increase its vote share which has been on the slide over the past decade during which many senior leaders of the party have left for greener pastures.
“Bahenji has said that if the party has to tie-up with another party it would have to be with someone who helps a transfer of vote to it,” said a party leader. In a bid to improve the party’s showing in more states, apart from Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati has envisioned a bigger role for her nephew Akash – her political heir, said a leader.
With this intention, Akash was given a role as campaign coordinator for the party in recent Assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. He also addressed public meetings but the party and its ally managed to win only three seats in the three states. However, the party is looking at him to keep young voters attached with it. In a restructure plan for improving BSP’s vote share in other states, Mayawati has given former Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Siddharth responsibility for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan instead of Maharashtra.
Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam has been made incharge of Maharashtra. The party’s past experience of tying up with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has not been an encouraging one in 2019. Even the famous social engineering formula of Mayawati, which brought Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims together, is also seemingly losing its sheen over the years due to Muslim voters looking at SP and the Congress as a more viable option. In 2019, the BSP contested on 38 seats and won 10.
The SP, BSP’s mahagatbandhan partner in UP, contested on 37 seats and won five seats. Both the alliance partners parted ways amid allegations that the other partner did not ensure transfer of votes to the other side. Mayawati’s party has seen a steady fall in its vote share in Uttar Pradesh from 28% to 12%, endangering its national party status.
Party sources said the exodus of tall leaders of the party, including Swami Prasad Maurya, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Lalji Verma, Nakul Dubey, Ram Achal Rajbhar and Naseemuddin, has dented the party’s base in Uttar Pradesh over the past decade. In the 2009 LS election, the BSP won 21 seats becoming the fourth largest party in Lok Sabha. In 2014, the party did not win any seats and became the third-largest national party in terms of vote percentage (4.2%).
The poor show was attributed to a number of factors, including the rise of the BJP and the BSP’s failure to forge alliances with other parties. In 2019, the BSP won 10 seats (1.84% vote share). The party made a partial comeback, however, this was still significantly lower than its performance in 2009.
In the just-concluded Assembly elections in Rajasthan, the BSP could win only two seats while its vote share remained an abysmal 1.82%—down 2.21%. In MP, the Mayawati-led outfit fought on 218 out of the 230 seats under a tie-up with Gondwana Ganatantra Party but failed to win any seat.
The BSP’s vote share in the Assembly election was 3.4%. In Chhattisgarh, BSP’s ally GGP won one seat while Mayawati’s party’s vote share stood at 2.05%.