Maya in Kanshi footsteps to make her mark

‘‘The BSP is in no hurry,’’ says a party source, adding, ‘‘pre-poll alliances have only damaged our ideology and vote bank. We want to make ourselves strong and build our influence in the country. We must keep what we have gained. We have grown from a state party to national party status. The BSP did not gain a seat when it aligned with Mulayam Singh in UP in 1993 and later with the Congress in 1996. Instead, we transferred our votes to them.’’

However, while keeping with its new ‘‘preservation and growth’’ mantra, BSP continues to have tremendous damage potential for national parties such as the Congress and BJP, with lethal effect in some states. It is also why both the Congress and BJP would like the BSP on its side or, prevent it from aligning with the other.

Take Madhya Pradesh for example — in the words of BSP leaders — the party cuts into the votes of the Congress to almost bring it on its knees in the Bundelkhand region, bordering UP. ‘We have the same vote bank,’’ says a BSP leader.

In 1998 and 1993 elections, while the BSP won only 11 seats and polled barely 7 per cent of the votes, it punched the Congress (which polled 40.59 and 40.67 per cent respectively and contested 318 seats out of 320 seats) hard enough for it to lose seats by narrow margins. A source says: ‘‘We contested only 170 seats but the Congress lost in all of them.’’ In 1985, when it was a straight fight between the Congress and BJP, the Congress won an astounding 250 seats out of 320 seats, while polling 48.87 per cent.

In Chhattisgarh, the BSP hopes to make dent in the Congress vote yet again as the state has a majority SC/ST and MBC population, touching a high of almost 90 per cent. While the BSP won three seats in the region in 1998, it hopes to play a crucial role, post-election.

In Rajasthan and Delhi, the BSP hopes to build its influence steadily among the Dalits and MBCs. In Rajasthan, the BSP has come with nothing in 1993 to two seats in 1998, and increased its voter percentage from 0.56 to 2.17 per cent. In Delhi, it still has to win a seat though its voting percentage has crept up from 1.88 to 3.09 per cent.