In bypoll defeat,BSP gets new worry: Erosion of MBC votes

As a result,the BSP leaders are now not so worried about the victory of the SP candidate Ashutosh Upadhyay.

The result of the Bhatpar Rani Assembly byelection,where BSP candidate Binda Kushwaha was beaten to third place and also lost her deposit,shows the erosion of the partys most backward class MBC base.

As a result,the BSP leaders are now not so worried about the victory of the SP candidate Ashutosh Upadhyay. Past experience shows that byelections are usually won by the ruling party candidates,particularly when there is little possibility of a change of government in near future and there is a sympathy factor working,as it did for the SP candidate. It was the death of his father Kameshwar Upadhyay that led to the byelection.

What rankles BSP leaders is the fact that Binda Kushwaha was beaten even by BSP rebel Sabhakunwar,who was the runner-up. Like Binda,he is also a Kushwaha.

The result means a setback to the BSP in its efforts to recover from its humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections a year ago. The party had staked much on the byelection,with all its senior leaders,except Mayawati herself,campaigning for Binda. In fact,many of them camped in the constituency for several days.

The BSP leaders biggest worry now is the partys MBC base. The party,as it entered the post-Bahujan phase after its alliance with the SP broke in 1995,had found a substantial base amongst MBCs who,unlike the upper OBCs,easily gel with its Dalit supporters.

Since then,there has been a tough contest between the SP and BSP to woo the MBCs. Mulayam Singh Yadav tried to lure them with promises like getting the MBCs included in the Scheduled Caste list. Now,Akhilesh government has sent a letter to the Centre for this purpose.

A few months after the defeat in the Assembly polls,the first major change Mayawati made in the party was elevation of two MBC leaders to reorganise its disturbed equation with the community after the ouster of former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha. Ram Achal Rajbhar was appointed state president,replacing Swami Prasad Maurya who was made national general secretary of the party and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

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While selecting Congress defector Binda as candidate,the BSP leaders argued she had polled more than 19,000 votes in the Assembly polls in a constituency where the Congress had no vote bank. Still,Binda polled 14,000 votes less than Sabhakunwar,who fought as the nominee of little-known Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party of Om Prakash Rajbhar.