It seems that in the coming Assembly elections, BSP national president Mayawati is neither to help the Congress nor to go on a vengeful spree against her new hate, the BJP. Her strategy is both self-centred and straightforward — contest all seats where her party is strong and let the two parties fight over the rest.Mayawati’s party has to garner at least 4 per cent of votes in as many states to keep its national party status. The BSP recently released a list of candidates for Delhi, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, which reveals the focus on self-preservation.The BSP is likely to hurt the Congress more than the BJP, as most of the sitting MLAs here are from the Congress. Mayawati’s oblique reference to an alliance with the Congress is perhaps exaggerated — in several states, where the margin between the Congress and BJP is vast, the BSP’s presence will barely make a dent in that gap and is not likely to be of much help to the Congress.Mayawati has helped the Congress by withdrawing from seats where the fight between the two parties is very close, but this seems almost incidental, as it is not her primary concern.Take Delhi, where the BSP has decided to contest 40 seats of 70. In these constituencies, the Congress has 35 sitting MLAs, while the BJP has four MLAs and an Independent. The BSP thus does have the potential to damage Congress prospects. In Rajasthan as well, the BSP will hurt the Congress more than the BJP, but here, the contest is expected to be close. The BSP will challenge the two parties in 125 out of 200 seats; of these, the Congress has 110 sitting MLAs. If the margin between the Congress and the BJP narrow, as trends seem to show, the BSP poses more of a problem for the Congress. The BSP is determined to make inroads only in Chhattisgarh. Again, it will wreak havoc on the Congress. The BSP will prove pivotal in deciding which party wins. It has tremendous damage potential for the Congress as it will eat into the latter’s votes, but this leaves the BSP unconcerned as it charges ahead, attempting to cash in on the new votebank in the state. .says cadre will fill jails if she is arrested EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE BHOPAL, NOVEMBER 5 In a marathon two-and-half-hour address to a gathering of BSP delegates, Mayawati said today that party workers will respond to her arrest by courting arrest in such large numbers that it would be difficult to run a government. However, she said, in the four states going to polls, the workers will not do so and would instead make this an electoral issue and court arrest after the day of polling. Mayawati was in town to finalise the list of 160 BSP candidates for the Assembly polls. An earlier list had been prepared by Phool Singh Baraiyya who has since left the party. Today’s meeting was held to explain why the break with the BJP was necessary and why 70 seats were left open. During her address, her references to the legacy of Kanshi Ram were designed to strike an emotional chord in a state that he had handled directly till now. ‘‘I am in tears today, not because I am afraid of being arrested. I have been arrested earlier and it only strengthened the BSP. But I fear that the trauma will lead to a third brain stroke for Kanshi Ram and this will mean his death,’’ she said. Subsequently, she said there was nothing new in the party strategy evolved. Kanshi Ram had pursued the same course in 1998 when the party contested 170 of 320 seats in undivided MP. Now, the party was contesting 160 in MP and 55 in Chhattisgarh, an increase of 45 seats from 1998.
