R K Chaudhary quits BSP: To woo Pasis, only leader Mayawati took back

The balance of power between Jatavs and other Scheduled Castes, such as Pasis, has been a recurring problem for the BSP. While Jatavs are spread across the state, the concentration of Pasis in areas surrounding Lucknow and Allahabad makes them significant in the outcome of at least 50 Assembly seats. (The state has a total of 403 Assembly and 80 Lok Sabha constituencies.)

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BJP and Samajwadi Party prefer Pasi candidates on reserved seats as against BSP. A total of 17 Dalits were elected as MPs for the BJP in 2014 elections while most of the SP MLAs elected from reserved seats in 2012 belonged to the Pasi community.

Chaudhary is the only BSP founder-member whom Mayawati took back into the party (in 2013) after expelling him (in 2001). The re-entry, a first for a Dalit leader in BSP, was aimed at attracting Pasis who had largely sided with the SP in 2012 elections.

Chaudhary’s association with BSP goes back to the days of party’s foundation in the early 1980s. The BSP’s founder, Kanshi Ram, was recruiting young Dalits for his movement when Chaudhary entered the scene. A lawyer in the Faizabad district court, Chaudhary was made the party’s convener for Gorakhpur and Faizabad divisions of Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, the political outfit Kanshi Ram had formed before he founded BSP.

Before the 1993 Assembly elections, Kanshi Ram appointed Chaudhary as the party’s state coordinator, a post equal to that of state president. He held posts of transport minister, health minister and cooperatives minister, in the early days, was seen as a “competitor” to Mayawati. While Kanshi Ram had groomed her as the leader of Jatavs, Chaudhary came to be recognised as the undeclared leader of Pasis.

In the late 1990s and thereafter, when Kanshi Ram began to withdraw from actively participating in BSP’s political affairs, differences between Mayawati and Chaudhary came to the fore. As the announcement of Kanshi Ram’s successor drew close, Chaudhary was expelled in July 2001 for allegedly differing with Mayawati on BSP’s decision to stand in support of quota within quota for backwards among Dalits and OBCs. About two years later, Mayawati took upon as the BSP’s national president.

Chaudhary soon formed a non-political entity, Bahujan Samaj Swabhiman Sangharsh Samiti, and started mobilising Pasi community against BSP. He later founded Rashtriya Swabhiman Party and won 2007 assembly election from Mohanlalganj seat. He contested in 2009 (Lok Sabha) but came third. He lost in 2012, forcing him to consider merging his party into the BSP.

Sources said Chaudhary, after his return to BSP, started feeling sidelined, which the loss in 2014 (Lok Sabha) reinforced. Just as he had feared, Mayawati did not give him any prominent post in the party.

Mayawati’s reliance on Jatav leaders (in Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections) resulted in Pasi leaders getting sidelined. Chaudhary, the senior most, felt slighted.

Historically, the relation between Pasis and Jatavs – the latter form the backbone of the BSP – have not been smooth. Pasis used to be the musclemen of upper castes and often wielded power on other Dalit groups, like Jatavs. The conflict which Kanshi Ram had tried to resolve by promoting leaders from both castes may return to haunt BSP in the coming days.

While Mayawati herself did not respond, BSP leaders said Chaudhary’s exit will not impact the party’s poll prospects. Former MP Brajesh Pathak said there are many Pasi leaders in BSP and the community is with Mayawati. BSP general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who, along with Swami Prasad Maurya and Ram Achal Rajbhar, had formalised Chaudhary’s re-entry in 2013, said “Chaudhary’s exit led to BSP’s majority in 2007. The same will happen in 2017.”