@dheerajupadhyay
New Delhi: With seven months still to go for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022, but all the political parties of the state have started working on their electoral strategy. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati too is eyeing this election seriously to remain relevant in political circles after facing defeats in the past two state elections. BSP is all set to replicate its 2007 winning formula of ‘Social Engineering’ in the state. Mayawati is trying to woo Brahmin and upper caste voters along with its loyal Dalit voters.
The BSP chief gave the responsibility of realizing this strategy to his confidant Satish Chandra Mishra, who was instrumental in her 2007 assembly elections in the win.
BSP’s Brahmin sammelan is to begin from Ayodhya on July 23
Every party in UP is trying to woo Brahmin voters to its fold since it was perceived in political circles that upper caste and especially Brahmin voters are not happy with BJP; that’s why BJP has inducted Congress’s youth Brahmin leader Jitin Prasad to garner the community votes. Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP too are set to imitate this strategy but SP doesn’t have any Brahmin face and leader of the stature of Janeshwar Mishra after his demise in its organization.
Selfish and anti-Dalit Samajwadi Party has only small parties: Mayawati
Meanwhile, in order to strengthen its vote share, BSP is banking on Satish Chandra Mishra’s ability to realign upper caste and Brahmin voters. Mishra is going to start Brahmin sammelan for BSP from 23rd July from Ayodhya after seeking Ramlala blessings. In the first phase of this program, Brahmin conferences will be organized in six districts from July 23 to July 29 followed by the rest of the UP districts under the aegis of SP Mishra.
BSP’s social engineering formula was a huge success in the 2007 UP assembly elections, where its slogan “Brahman Sankh Bajayega Hathi Chalte Jayega” has worked wonders for the party and even catapulted it to attain an absolute majority in the assembly.
Social engineering magic worked for BSP in 20027
In 2007 Mayawati returned to power riding on the social engineering formula in the UP Assembly by winning 206 seats with a 30% vote share out of the total 403 seats.
Mayawati once again wants to repeat its successful performance of 2007 in the 2022 state elections. But for this, her party needs voter support of all the caste and creeds of society. Meanwhile, BJP has maintained and retained nearly 40% vote share in Uttar Pradesh since 2014. However, the last two assembly elections have not proved to be good for BSP, like in the 2012 state elections BSP got 80 seats with 25.95 votes while in 2017 BSP managed to get only 19 seats with just 22.24% vote share.
Although in the 2019 General elections Mayawati formed a grand alliance with her arch-rival SP; but they were blown off in BJP’s storm and the alliance managed just 15 seats, out of which 10 went to BSP and 5 to SP. Learning from her past alliance experience Mayawati has decided to go alone in the 2022 UP elections.