BSP supremo’s game plan to win the trust of minority voters

Lucknow: The BSP, which has been decimated in the UP assembly polls, has high hopes from the by-elections of Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. Party strategists are of the opinion that the victory in this election will give impetus to the campaign to reclaim the Muslim vote base, which has drifted towards the SP.

It is a well-known fact that in the recently concluded assembly polls, a large section of Muslim voters stood in favor of the SP. But in the post poll scenario, due to various reasons, a significant chunk of these voters seemed to be disenchanted with Akhilesh’s party. It was from this point that BSP chief Mayawati started seeing a ray of hope for the revival of her party. Notably, after the humiliating defeat in the UP assembly elections, the Dalit-Brahmin alliance lost its relevance for BSP supremo Mayawati. Since then, the BSP apparently started returning to its old formula of Dalit-Muslim combination.

Earlier, the BSP chief has given a clear message to Muslim voters that en mass support to SP proved to be redundant, whereas in reality only her party with Dalit-Muslim consolidation could be able to arrest the surge of the BJP. Mayawati seems to be fully engaged in her efforts to bring Muslim voters back from the SP fold. Last month, she took a dig at the BJP government, terming Azam Khan’s continued incarceration as strangulation of justice in an apparent attempt to woo the Muslim voters. Not only this, Munkad Ali was appointed as the Chief Coordinator of the party.

The walkover to Azam Khan’s camp by not contesting the Rampur by-election is being assessed as Mayawati’s ploy to win the sympathy of the Muslim community. Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali, who had contested assembly polls from Owaisi’s party after rebelling against the BSP, was not only returned to the party but was also declared BSP candidate from Azamgarh.