LUCKNOW July 6: With a not so impressive response at the July 1 rally to glorify a Pasi chieftain of the 12th century the Bahujan Samaj Party leadership is taking one more chance by proposing to hold another caste rally at Kanpur.The on-going political tussle between the BSP and the Samajwadi Party has found expression in caste rallies frequently organised by both the parties to outwit each other in Uttar Pradesh. The Kanpur rally will be organised in the name of Sahuji Maharaj, a Kurmi king from Kolhapur, and is tentatively fixed for July 27 at the Kanpur University which itself had been christened after the former Maharashtra estate king. The unenthusiastic response to the Government-sponsored Pasi rally at Lucknow was a disappointment to Chief Minister Mayawati. This rally had been aimed at clipping the wings of Defence Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had tried to make a dent in the Pasi community vote-bank. Mulayam had attempted to wean away the Pasis from the BSP by projecting Mayawati as promoting members of her caste alone, while others were being neglected.Then the Defence Minister tried to convert the acquisition of the Pasi fort at Lucknow by the Government as another controversy to embarrass Mayawati, while his supporters held a rally at the same venue to highlight the Chief Minister's neglect towards other Dalit sub-castes. Now it was the turn of the BSP to turn tables on the SP, by trying to make inroads into the latter's Kurmi vote-bank.
