The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), armed with its success formula of Uttar Pradesh , is aiming to dent the bipolar politics of Chhattisgarh and also emerge as a “balancing force” in the coming Assembly elections.The BSP, which could clinch only two seats in the maiden polls held after the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh, took a lead over other parties by releasing its first list of 50 candidates for the elections scheduled to be held in November this year. The list, which has nobody from the Muslim community, is indicative of the BSP’s bid to replicate its formula of giving representation to all castes, which helped it wrest power in UP. “The party wants that neither the Congress nor the BJP is able to make it to power without the direct support of BSP,” said state BSP president Dauram Ratnakar.“Our strategy is to give adequate representation to sarva samaj (all communities), including the upper castes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs),” Ratnakar told The Indian Express. The list has 11 OBC candidates of the prominent Sahu community, two Brahmins and three members of the Vaish community. Ratnakar said three candidates, who enjoyed influence in their respective regions, have also been included in the first list. State BSP president, however, scoffed at the description of the state being bipolar, saying that those who had ruled the region for long did not easily accept the third force. “In the 2003 polls, BSP polled about four per cent votes. This time, we will considerably increase our vote share and influence the outcome of the elections,” he claimed.The BSP has been organising community sammelans across the state in order to explain its concept of “social engineering”. UP Finance Minister Lalji Verma, Minister of State for Health Anant Kumar Mishra and BSP in-charge for party affairs Sewa Ram are coordinating the sammelans.
