Prem Kant Tiwari
Lucknow: After suffering a historic loss in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Bahujan Samaj Party is now endeavouring to re-energise it cadres and revive the organisation in Uttar Pradesh. BSP president Mayawati held a meeting in Lucknow on Sunday to review the loss in the 2024 parliamentary polls.
It may be mentioned that the BSP couldn’t win even a single seat in 2024 general elections. Besides, the vote share of the party which was 19.43 per cent in the 2019 LS polls came down to mere 9.39 per cent in 2024. The poll debacle has caused a grave concern among the party’s office-bearers. Moreover, victory of another Dalit leader and Mayawati’s rival Chandra Shekhar Azad ‘Rawan’ from the Nagina reserved constituency has added to the worries of the BSP.
Mayawati, while reviewing the loss in polls in the presence of Satish Chandra Mishra, BSP general secretary and a Brahmin face of the outfit, State unit chief Vishwanath Pal, and her nephew Akash Anand and others, exhorted party workers to strengthen the party and counter the propaganda of the Congress on the Constitution.
The BSP supremo also reinstated Akash Anand as the national co-ordinator of the party and her successor. It may be recalled that Mayawati had removed Akash Anand from the post following his scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party. While addressing a poll rally in Sitapur in May, Akash Anand had termed the BJP government as that of terrorists.
It may be mentioned that the BJP’s slogan ‘Abki baar char sau paar’ was countered by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party by alleging that the saffron party was planning to change the Constitution and do away with the quota system in the government jobs. This led to shift of a large number of Dalit voters to candidates of SP-Congress alliance in UP. Earlier, the BSP voters used to shift to BJP if they observed that the contestant fielded by Mayawati was not in a winning position.
Besides, Mayawati took some more significant decisions at the review meeting on Sunday. She exhorted the party office-bearers to launch membership drive to strengthen the organisation. Asking the party workers to remain alert and vigilant against propaganda of other parties, the BSP also distributed booklets among the office-bearers to enroll new members. In order to make the membership drive easier, the BSP chief has brought down the membership fee from Rs 200 to Rs 50 only.
Political pundits feel that even the delayed measures for the resurgence of the Bahujan Samaj Party can reinvigorate the party workers if Akash Anand is given a free hand to rebuild the organisation.