BSP faces worst defeat in Punjab

In the past six elections, the party's share has been decreasing with every passing election.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had a strong presence in Doaba region of the state, has shown its worst performance in this election in the past over two decades.

From Doaba BSP had not only fetched good vote share in the past but also BSP’s four MPs, including party founder Kanshi Ram, had won from here only in 1996.

The party has witnessed around 15 per cent decrease in vote share since 1992 to 2014.

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Today both the BSP candidates from Doaba region – Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur – have forfeited their security and could not even score 1/6th of the total vote polled.

In Punjab too, BSP’s vote share has come down to just 1.9 per cent this time as compared to 5.75 per cent in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

In Jalandhar BSP’s candidate, Sukhwinder Kotli, could get only 46,914 votes out of the total 10.40 lakh votes (4.5 per cent) and in Hoshiarpur around 9.60 lakh votes were polled, out of which BSP candidate,
Bhagwan Singh Chauhan, could get only 40,497 (4.2 per cent). In 2009, BSP candidate from Jalandhar had scored 93,000 votes, while from Hoshiarpur over one lakh votes.

It has reduced its vote share results from 16.32 per cent in 1992 elections (when SAD had boycotted the elections) to 1.9 per cent in 2014 elections.

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In the past six elections, including Lok Sabha and assembly elections since 1998, the party’s share has been decreasing with every passing election.

The BSP vote share dropped to 9.35 per cent in 1996 (Lok Sabha) to a mere 7.48 per cent in 1997 (Assembly elections). It dropped further to 5.69 per cent in 2002 (Assembly elections). By 2007, the BSP was totally fragmented in Punjab and it polled only 4.10 per cent votes. It could not improve its condition in 2012 Assembly elections, when it secured only 4.30 per cent vote share.

The party leadership in the state informed that whenever BSP remained strong in the state it had caused major dent to the Congress vote bank, but in this elections its decreasing vote share could benefit only Aam Adami Party (AAP) in both the Doaba seats.

The senior leaders of the party said that poor policies of the BSP’s state leadership led to its decreasing share and many good leaders have left it and joined other parties.

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Even the established and popular BSP leaders, including Pawan Tinu and others, had been expelled which further weakened the BSP position here.

Sources in the LJP (RV) said the names of the remaining 15 candidates would also be announced very soon.

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