Friday, April 10, 2009

BSP woos upper castes in Bihar

PATNA: After several abortive bids, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is finally hoping to enter Bihar through districts bordering
UP.

"We are expecting to push our vote percentage in Bihar from six per cent to 14 per cent," said BSP media in-charge and spokesperson J N Trivedi. he stressed that the rainbow coalition' which catapulted the party to power in UP would be replicated in Bihar.

The party has not only fielded candidates from all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state, but also considers itself to be a serious bidder in at least four parliamentary constituencies - Valmikinagar, Gopalganj, Buxar and Sasaram - all located near the UP border.

So far UP CM Mayawati has addressed election meetings in Bhagalpur, Pashchimi Champaran, Saran and Sasaram. At all her public meetings, she has sought support from upper castes, particularly Brahmins. Not suprisingly, out of the 40 candidates the party has fielded as many as 11 from the upper castes - five Brahmins and four Bhumihars.

From here party's No. 2 and architect of the Brahmin-Dalit combination in UP Satish, Chandra Mishra, takes over. From Friday, Mishra is going to address 15 election meetings in Bihar including Siwan, Madhubani and Valmikinagar, where the BSP has fielded Brahmin candidates.

The BSP has been trying to woo upper castes, particularly Brahmins, since July 27, 2007 when it held a meeting at S K Memorial Hall here in a bid to woo them to its fold in Bihar.

"The social and political condition in the state was ideal for Brahmins in Bihar to change their political affiliation. Right after the 1990s there has been Brahmin-bashing projecting it as the caste responsible for everything wrong in the society. Even the Brahmin leaders stopped defending the caste," Trivedi said.

The party believes that it has already witnessed a marginal success in wooing Brahmins in Bihar. In the Vikramganj parliamentary by-polls held in December, 2007, the party fielded Balram Mishra, a Brahmin candidate and managed to secure third place ahead of both CPI(ML) candidate and Independent MLA Pradeep Joshi's wife.

One of the most famous slogans raised by the BSP in the last Assembly polls in UP was Brahmam Shankh Bajayga, Hathi Aage Barhta Jayega (Brahmins will blow the conch Shank and the elephant (BSP poll symbol) will march ahead)."

The party hopes the same slogan will also pay dividend in Bihar. However, unlike UP the party has a weak organization in Bihar. Though it has won assembly seats in the state, its MLAs have been vulnerable to defection. But, as party leaders point out, it has nothing to lose and only gain in vote terms of increase per centage. This could mean a couple of seats to it in Bihar.

Source : Times of India

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