Mayawati announces BSP’s Brahmin outreach

Mayawati has stepped up efforts to court the Brahmin vote bank since last year, when she announced that her party would build a grand statue of Hindu deity Parshuram if voted to power in 2022.

BSP president Mayawati. (File photo)

With next year’s Assembly elections and past successes in mind, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Sunday announced the launch of a Brahmin Sammelan from Ayodhya in the coming week, and placed party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra in charge of the exercise.

The conference is scheduled to begin in Ayodhya on July 23. The same day, Mishra will start a drive to connect Brahmins with temple darshan (visits) in the city. The BSP’s increased engagement with the Brahmin community had propelled it to an absolute majority in 2007. Twenty of its 51 Brahmin candidates were elected to the Assembly. In 2012, when the Samajwadi Party (SP) unseated it, only seven of the party’s 51 Brahmin candidates were elected. In 2017, the BSP gave tickets to 52 Brahmins, of whom only four were successful.

Mayawati hit out at the BJP government, accusing it of ignoring the welfare of people because of its “casteist and communal mentality”, and claimed that her party was the only one that could ensure the welfare of Brahmins and others. The BSP chief said the “exploitation of people because of poor law-and-order situation on BJP government’s watch, its casteist mentality and the mentality of religious malice” was not hidden from anyone.

“The upper caste society, especially the Brahmin community that voted for the BJP one-sided in the last Vidhan Sabha elections, is extremely worried. However, I am very truly proud of people of the Dalit community who, like always, did not deviate and voted collectively for the BSP,” Mayawati said, adding that Brahmins were now regretting their decision. The BSP chief said, “I am hopeful that for their honour, safety and progress, people from the Brahmin community will again connect with the BSP and will form a government liked by everyone.”

Mayawati has stepped up efforts to court the Brahmin vote bank since last year, when she announced that her party would build a grand statue of Hindu deity Parshuram if voted to power in 2022. The announcement followed a similar one by the Samajwadi Party. After gangster Vikas Dubey’s death in a police encounter last July, Mayawati accused the Yogi Adityanath government of harassing Brahmins. In 2018, after two policemen were accused of killing Apple executive Vivek Tiwari, she had alleged that atrocities against Brahmins had increased under the BJP rule.

The BSP chief said the party had directed its MPs to raise matters of public welfare in both Houses of Parliament with full preparation and commitment. “There are several important issues on which the public wants answers from the central government and it is important for all the Opposition parties to come together and make the government stand in the witness box,” she said, adding that one of those issues was the government ignoring farmers protesting at the Delhi border against three farm laws.

Mayawati also lashed out at the government over rising fuel prices and its management of the Covid-19 pandemic.