THE Congress and Samajwadi Party's (SP's) accusations against the BSP of being the BJP's "B-Team" are set to get stronger with the party's four lists covering 46 seats, out of the total 80, indicating that Mayawati may cut into the traditional vote bases of the two parties. Of the names declared by the BSP so far, 11 are Muslims, mainly from minority-dominated seats of western UP like Saharanpur, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Amroha, Aonla, Pilibhit (many of which vote in the first phase on April 19), along with the Central UP seats of Kannauj and Lucknow. This is much more than the number of Muslims fielded by the SP in the 50 seats for which it has announced names. Apart from Muslims, the BSP also gave the ticket to a significant number of Brahmins like Rakesh Dwivedi from Akbarpur, Manish Tripathi from Mirzapur, Ashok Kumar Pandey from Unnao, Sacchidanad Pandey from Faizabad, Dayashankar Mishra from Basti etc. The remaining are either Dalits or backward leaders of the party. BSP national coordinator and Mayawati's heir apparent Akash Anand recently began the party's Lok Sabha campaign with an attack on the BJP – the party had been avoiding it recently. He has also promised that the BSP would support the construction of a new “Babri Masjid”, whenever it is built, referring to the mosque coming up in place of the one demolished to make way for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. Mayawati has also lined up a series of rallies in western UP seats with dominant Muslim populations, including Moradabad, Pilibhit, Nagina and Bijnor. Among the 11 Muslims fielded by the party, one is Jawed Simnani, from Gorakhpur. The BSP has in the recent past never fielded a Muslim from here, propping up either a Bramhin or a Nishad candidate from the traditional BJP seat. In 2019, it had left the constituency for its then ally SP. Gorakhpur has a significant number of Muslims and OBC Nishads. The BJP-led NDA has fielded a Brahmin, Ravi Kishan, and is counting on Nishad backing given that the NISHAD Party is one of its allies. The BSP's Simnani is expected to cut into the SP's Muslim votes, which it hoped to get apart from the backing of OBCs and Nishads, having fielded Kajal Nishad. Simnani is not only a Muslim but also a local from a well-known family. From Etah, the BSP has fielded former Congress leader Mohd Irfan. The seat was represented by the BJP's OBC Lodh stalwart and ex-CM Kalyan Singh, and has now sent his son Rajveer Singh to the Lok Sabha twice. The SP has fielded a Shakya leader from the seat, as it has a significant number of voters from the community, and was hoping to consolidate OBC and Muslim votes too in its favour. Further, the BSP has hinted that it could field Athar Jamal Lari against PM Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Lari had contested from Varanasi in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections on Apna Dal ticket, securing around 93,000 votes. Though the BSP hadn't fielded a Muslim candidate against Modi from Varanasi in the past two elections, it had fielded Mukhtar Ansari from the seat in 2009, against the BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi. Mukhtar had lost the poll, but only after giving Joshi a scare by securing around 1.8 lakh votes. Hence, Lari might end up getting substantial Muslim votes. The Congress has fielded its local strongman Ajay Rai from here. In Saharanpur, where the BSP has replaced its sitting MP Hazi Fazrul Rehman with Majid Ali, Mayawati hit out at the Congress asking why it had fielded Imran Masood despite knowing he won't win. On the other hand, she said, the BSP didn't have just Muslim but also a Dalit base. “Congress ke paas koi doosra vote nahin hai (The Congress does not have a second vote base),” appealing to Muslims to not divide their votes and saying that any vote to the Congress would only help the BJP. In Muzaffarnagar, Mayawati talked about the 2013 riots and pointed out that these had happened under the SP's watch, while there was peace during her four CM terms. The BSP candidate here is Dara Singh Prajapati, who belongs to a Most Backward Class. The BJP's Sanjeev Balyan, a Jat, is facing Rajput anger in the seat. The SP has also fielded a Jat here, Harendra Mallik, and was calculating on getting other backward community votes. Further, the BSP has fielded Imran Bin Jafar from Kannauj (an SP stronghold) against sitting MP and BJP candidate Subrat Pathak, while Sarvar Mallik has been fielded against Union Minister and Sitting MP Rajnath Singh in the state Capital Lucknow. In Ghosi, the BSP has dropped sitting MP Atul Rai, giving the ticket instead to Balkrishna Chauhan, who lost to Rai in 2019 as a Congress candidate. Chauhan has earlier represented both the BSP and SP. The NDA candidate is Arvind Rajbhar, the son of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, while the SP has fielded Rajiv Rai as part of the INDIA bloc. Rais are Bhumihar in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, while Rajbhars are OBCs. The BSP's other candidates include its former state president Bhim Rajbhar from Azamgarh, Satyendra Kumar Maurya from Chandauli, and lawyer Dhaneshwar Gautam from Robertsganj, which is an SC reserved constituency. At the same time, the BSP appears to have changed its motto of 'Sarvajan hitai, Sarvajan sukhai (For everyone's benefit, for everyone's happiness)' to 'Bahujan hitai, Bahujan sukhai', indicating a return to its roots. With Bahujan, the BSP implies SCs, STs and OBCs. The 'Bahujan hitai, Bahujan sukhai' motto was used in a press note issued by the BSP last week, informing about party chief Mayawati's election meetings in Nagpur (Maharashtra). Till the last elections, the BSP's posters had 'Sarvajan hitai, Sarvajan sukhai' motto. BSP Uttar Pradesh unit president Vishwanath Pal told PTI that there had been no change in the party's stand. "Bahujan means sarvajan or sarva samaj. The BSP is the only party in the country which gives representation to the sarva samaj. Before the BSP, there were sections of the society which did not get a chance to contest elections, be it Pal, Maurya, Prajapati or Vishwarma.” The BSP has been on the decline in UP. In the 2022 Assembly polls, it won just one seat and saw its vote share plunge. In 2019, when the BSP fought the last Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the SP, it won 10 seats, with a vote share of more than 19%. Most of those sitting MPs have now jumped ship. In 2014, it failed to win any seat though it maintained its vote percentage.
