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Journalism of Courage
A decade after Mandalisation ushered in a paradigm-shift in politics and three UP regional parties as key players on the national scene, the regional parties find themselves at the receiving end on their own turf. Small parties have sprouted in the state, each representing the interest of one caste or group. With polls round the corner, they are making the bigger players sit up and take note.
In all, there are some dozen parties out in the field in UP. In the last election, small parties had fielded over 1,500 candidates for the 403 seats but their strike rate was low. This time, their focus is on a higher tally with fewer candidates. The more prominent among these smaller players:
8226; BHARATIYA SAMAJ PARTY is a Rajbhar community outfit headed by Om Prakash Rajbhar. He was nominated the state president of Jan Morcha by the V.P. Singh-Raj Babbar combine last year, but soon parted company with them. Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot and UP Congress president Salman Khursheed attended a rally jointly organised by him in July 2006 and Rashtriya Samanata Dal of Moti Lal Shastri at Chandauli in July to get a feel of their mass base. Thereafter, they invited him to New Delhi for discussions. He met with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, but nothing emerged. Busy working out an alliance of small parties now, Rajbhar has unpleasant memories of dealing with big Congress leaders. 8220;They are all big people, why talk about them,8221; he says sarcastically when asked about chances of an understanding with Congress. His key demand is the grant of Scheduled Caste status for Rajbhars, concentrated in Mirzapur, Azamgarh, Allahabad and Faizabad areas.
8226; RASHTRIYA SAMANATA DAL is a Kushwaha party. The community has other variants like Saini, Baghban, Shakya and Maurya. Formed by Moti Lal Shastri, a farmer leader of the Varanasi area in 2000, it espouses the cause of the most backward communities vis-a-vis the more advanced caste groups in the OBCs. Shastri is trying to secure the backing of the community spread out in eastern and western UP.
8226; NATIONAL LOKTANTRIK PA-RTY has been floated by former minister Masood Ahmed to propagate the idea of 8220;equal partnership8221; for Muslims in power. He has an ambitious plan to put up its candidates in at least 130 constituencies. 8220;We will put up more more Hindus than Muslims,8221; he says, emphasising 8220;we stand for a fair share for all in proportion to their numbers.8221; He foresees an alliance of small parties to end the domination of the big parties.
