Mayawati’s ex-aides, BSP founder members: SP line-up stacked with former rivals

Of the 57 Lok Sabha candidates the Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced so far, at least 14 are from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Among them are former close aides of party chief and former Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati such as Babu Singh Kushwaha and Lalji Verma.

The SP, which is contesting the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Congress, will contest 62 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress will contest 17 seats and one has been left for the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

“The BSP has a good sway among the backward and Dalit communities. With the BSP weakening in the state, their leaders wanted to join us as we are a party most likely to defeat the BJP. We took them on board as we are trying to expand our footprint among the Dalit and non-Yadav OBC communities,” said an SP leader.

Most of these SP leaders who shifted from the BSP belong to the non-Yadav Other Backward Class (OBC) communities among whom the SP has been trying to establish its presence.

Babu Singh Kushwaha (Jaunpur): He served as the Minister of Health and Family Welfare in the Mayawati Cabinet from 2007 to 2012. In 2011, he was expelled from the party over his alleged involvement in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

Kushwaha, who hails from the Kushwaha OBC community, joined the BJP a year later but was expelled from the party. In 2016, he floated the Jan Adhikar Party.

In 2017, he was named in the CBI chargesheet in the NRHM scam that accused him of causing a loss of Rs 21.2 crore to the government. His JAP contested 40 seats in the 2022 UP Assembly elections in alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM and other smaller parties as a part of the Bhagidari Parivartan but failed to win anything. Kushwaha is in alliance with the SP this time and is