Eye on Uttar Pradesh polls, BSP supports Congress in Uttarakhand 

The BSP had announced that its two MLAs Sarwat Karim Ansari and Haridas would support Congress in the floor test of Uttarakhand early on Tuesday morning. The development is not unexpected as both the MLAs were part of six-member Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) that was already supporting the Harish Rawat led Congress government. However, the BSP’s move is significant for UP politics. A BSP leader said that party strategically decided to announce support for Congress at last moment to give a message that it was against the BJP.

BSP sources said that the BSP preferred the Congress because the most important factor is the Muslim vote. The BSP needs Muslim voters to defeat the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party government of UP and regain power in the state where the party did not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls despite being the main opposition party.

In 2017 too, Mayawati does not want Muslim voters to be divided between SP, BSP and the Congress — she wants them to unitedly support the BSP only. The reason being that support of Muslim and Dalit voters had helped BSP in winning 206 seats in 2007 UP Assembly polls and getting Mayawati power.

“Congress is an anti-BJP front and by supporting Congress, BSP has given a message that it was against ‘communal forces like BJP’,” said a BJP leader. He further explained that supporting Congress is not going to affect winning prospects of BSP in UP because Congress is so far not appearing in a position to hit BSP, SP or BJP in 2017 polls.

That leader said that one of the two BSP MLAs in Uttarakhand is a Muslim and if he votes in support of BJP, that can give a wrong message to the Muslim community about BSP.

“These two votes of BSP in Uttarakhand are going to give a message in larger prospective for the party in UP where BJP and RSS offshoots have started raising issues of Ram temple and communal matters
like Love Jihad, Ghar Wapsi and riots,” a party leader said.

“Also, if both the BSP MLAs – who are part of PDF – had changed their stand and had either supported BJP or stayed away from voting – it was going to give a message that BSP supremo Mayawati has joined hands with a communal force like BJP for personal gains,” said that party leader.

Sources said that leader of Opposition in UP Assembly and BSP national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui is camping in Dehradun to be the medium of communication between both the party MLA and party supremo Mayawati.

By announcing support to Congress, BSP is expecting a better performance in 2017 Assembly poll of Uttarakhand too.

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