UP polls: BSP announces second list of 100 candidates, woos Muslims

BSP gave 27 tickets to nominees from the SCs, who form the core vote bank of the party

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati announced 100 more names of party candidates for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls taking the tally to 200 of the total 403 seats.

Uttar Pradesh will have seven-phased polls from February 4 to March 8. Results will be out on March 11.

The BSP's second list has been announced for phase II and III polls on February 15 and 19 respectively covering areas like Saharanpur, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Badaun, Etawah, Kanpur and Unnao.

A perusal of the two lists showed that out of the 200 nominees, 58 Muslims have been given the biggest share clearly indicating that the BSP Chief is making all attempts to win back the community which had opted for the ruling Samajwadi Party in the 2012 polls.

In the first list declared on Thursday, BSP had named 36 Muslims, in the second 22.

Muslims constitute 19 per cent voters in UP and wield influence on around 125 Assembly seats.

The party also gave 27 tickets to nominees from the Scheduled Castes, who form the core vote bank of the BSP, in the second list.

Mayawati had said she had identified candidates for all the seats, unlike her rivals BJP, Congress and SP, who are yet to come out with their first list.

The BSP plans to give 87 tickets to Dalits, 97 to Muslims and 106 to OBCs. Upper castes will get 113 tickets. Out of this, Brahmins will get 66, Kshatriyas 36, and Kayasthas, Vaishyas and Punjabis 11, she had said.

As part of her plan to woo the Muslims, the former chief minister has been pointing out how the Modi government at the Centre had been targeting the community through "love jihad" and "cow meat ban" campaigns since 2014.

Taking advantage of the family feud in the ruling Yadav family, Mayawati has been reminding the Muslims not to waste their ballot on SP this time.

In Lucknow, fresh attempts to bring Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh on the same page failed despite Akhilesh personally speaking to his uncle Shivpal, believed to be in the eye of the SP storm.

Realising that Akhilesh is pressing for his ouster, party leader Amar Singh brushed aside the charges against him and said that he only wished the CM well and wanted the father-son duo to be united.

The Akhilesh camp believes that both Shivpal and Amar are poisoning Mulayam's ears against the CM.

Amid reports of a poll pact between the SP and the Congress, the BSP Chief had attacked both saying such a grouping would help the BJP gain more traction and accused all three rivals of conniving to keep her out of power.

Appealing to her core dalit vote bank, Mayawati has targeted both the BJP and the Congress saying they paid only lip service to the marginalised and hardly cared for the poor in practice.