With several Muslim, Brahmin names, BSP list may cut into INDIA votes

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