11 out of BSP’s 18 MLAs are with SP and its vote bank snatched by BJP
Ubaidullah Nasir
The popularity of Samajwadi Party specially after its notable performance in Panchayat Raj election is increasing day by day on the other hand Mayawati’s BSP is facing worst ever crisis of its history. BSP’s political stars are in dark since its defeat in 2012 assembly elections. After that Mayawati is taking every step that harmed her party further. In spite of defeat after defeat in assembly and general election her arrogance knews no bound, the latest being the expulsion of two most senior leaders of the party Lal ji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar. Before these two senior most leaders she has expelled another senior minister of her cabinet and Brahmin face of the party Ramvir Upadhyaya and Anil Singh. Earlier she had expelled seven of her MLAs alleging that they have defied party whip and voted for SP supported candidate during Rajya Sabha election. In 2017 assembly election she refused to join hands with newly formed political alliance of Congress and Samajwadi party but could get only 19 seats. One of her MLA Ritesh Pandey was elected to parliament another MLA Mukhtar Ansari the noted gangster is in jail. It was alleged during last assembly election that she refused to join hands with Congress Samajwadi Party alliance under pressure from Modi government. Many cases of corruption are pending against her. In one case even a recovery of few hundred crore rupees has also been ordered by the court but thanks to Modi government she is still out of jail. Not only this her vote bank is also shrinking badly and now the fact is that only a short percentage of Ambedkarites voters have remained with her and majority of them has shifted to BJP and few including her Muslim voters have shifted to Samawadi Party . In these circumstances her MLAs worried of their political future are seeking refuge in Samajwadi Party .
In a notable political development five of BSP’s seven expelled MLAs met Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday indicating that they may join SP in a couple of days once they get solid assurance from the SP. The five MLAs who met Akhilesh Yadav includes Sushma Patel, Aslam Raini, Hakim Lal Bind, Mohd. Mujtaba Siddiqi, and Hargovind Bhargava.
It is yet not clear that the expelled BSP MLAs will form their own party and will reach in alliance with Samajwadi Party or will join Samajwadi Party collectively. A senior Samajwadi party leader told media that Lal ji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar both have also met with Akhilesh Yadav they are very senior leaders and may join our party but nothing has yet been finalised.
On the other one of the expelled BSP leader Aslam Raini said that we are also thinking of forming our own party we are eleven in number and need one more MLA and the moment we get another legislator we will form our own party and Mr. Lalji Verma will be our leader .But Lalji Verma said that Mr. Raini is indulging in wishfull thinking as we are one short of the required number of 12 to split the BSP legislator party as it requires two third majority.
What these MLAs will do may not be clear at the moment, but it is sure that they will be a part of Samajwadi Party bandwagon. If they formed their own party they will align with SP and if that could not be possible they will seek ticket from SP for forthcoming assembly election.
It is tragic that dream of Kashi Ram has been shattered by his own disciple Mayawati because of her greed arrogance and political gimmicks. Her every step is to benefit BJP and to save herself from the fate of Lalu Prasad Yadav . Dalit movement in distant future is once again a dream unfulfilled.
