BackBSP woos non-Dalits to expand Punjab footprint
After drawing a blank in the past three assembly elections, the party is looking beyond its core base of SC voters
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New Delhi: Ahead of the 2017 Punjab assembly polls, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—which draws support from a loyal base of Dalit voters—is inducting non-Dalits as part of its plan to expand its social base.
The party wants 40% of its organizational structure to be constituted from those other than the scheduled castes (SCs).
“This is an attempt to strike a balance in the social structure of the party. We want to give equal opportunities to other backward classes, scheduled tribes and upper castes depending upon their population. All are welcome to join us," said Narendra Kumar Kashyap, in charge of the party’s affairs in Punjab.
The BSP will launch its campaign on Friday—the day its leader Mayawati turns 60. The BSP will hold rallies in all 22 districts with the party’s state unit chief, Avtar Singh Karimpuri, addressing rallies in Hoshiarpur and Kashyap in Nawanshahr.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), opposition Congress party and debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) kicked off their campaigns during the Maghi Mela festival in Muktsar on Thursday.
Though the BSP is hopeful of diversifying its support base, analysts say that merely including non-SCs won’t be enough.
“The party leadership needs to choose very wisely the areas from which these non-SC candidates will contest. If Mayawati tries to field non-SC candidates from urban areas, it will fail as the BJP has a strong presence here. BSP needs to look at rural areas. Even though the Akali Dal has a stronghold among farmers, it is still a safer bet for BSP than targeting urban areas, which has never been its support base. Mayawati lost her social base in the parliamentary elections; this is the only opportunity to regain and widen it," said Ramesh Dixit, former professor of political science at Lucknow University.
The BSP is also trying to beef up its youth wing, Bahujan Volunteer Force, by enrolling youths at the booth/district level, taking their membership up to 50% of the organizational structure.
“Out of all the states where we have a presence, our youth wing is the strongest and most effective in Punjab. Moreover, Punjab does have a sizeable youth population, which needs to be tapped," said Kashyap. “More than 70% of the youth here are involved in drugs. Thus the biggest issue of our party will be to build a drug-free Punjab."
Proper implementation of reservation for the weaker sections, atrocities against Dalits, unemployment, migration and farmers’ suicides will be the party’s main campaign issues, he said.
The BSP feels that its efforts to raise the issues of atrocities against Dalits—who constitute 32% of the state’s population—have won it a lot of support.
“The incident where the limbs of two Dalit men were chopped off allegedly by Akali Dal members in Abohar district or the incident of the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib clearly shows that the government has failed in protecting the faith, lives and property of the people of Punjab... Our efforts of raising these issues from the streets to Parliament have been appreciated by the Dalits," said Karimpuri.
However, the BSP does not have a good electoral record in Punjab. In the 2012 assembly polls, the party could not win a single seat out of the 117 seats it had contested from; in 2002 and 2007 too, the party drew a blank.
The last time the party made it to the state assembly was in 1997, when it won one out of the 67 contested seats. Since 1997, its vote share has decreased from 13.28% to 4.30% in 2012.
The party’s troubles have only increased with the entry of AAP. However, the BSP is looking at AAP’s debut as an opportunity and not a challenge. “There are 15-20 seats in which our candidates always lose by a margin of barely 500-1,000 votes. The supporters of the Congress and the Akali Dal are finding an alternative in AAP and a cut in the vote share of these two parties means a victory for us," said Kashyap.
Analysts, on the other hand, are not sure. “One must understand that a lot of factors—such as the anti-corruption movement—were at play when AAP swept the Delhi polls. This cannot be replicated in Punjab and the only way both the BSP as well as AAP can make any gains in this election is by aligning with other parties," said Dixit.
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