The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with its tally of barely 20 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, almost entirely from just Uttar Pradesh, seemed to be reeling under an anti-incumbency wave on the home turf, while their dream of expanding to other states remained stillborn.
The party could retain only three of 16 seats it won last time, viz Basti, Sitapur and Misrikh, while it opened its account in new seats like Gautam Buddh Nagar, Aligarh and Hamirpur. The lone seat, it managed to win outside UP was Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, a seat it had won once earlier.
The scene at their Delhi office was dismal. Most party workers, watching Congress and Samajwadi Party win seats of even its sitting MPs, felt the party was to blame. A defeated MP openly blamed Chief Minister Mayawati and held her responsible for taking the party to ruin.
Many looked at the poor performance as a verdict against growing corruption and poor implementation of anti poverty and development schemes.
“This woman (CM Mayawati) would lead the party to ruin. There are people who know this and yet quietly eating out of her hands. People will realise this when the end comes for the party,’’ said Ramesh Dubey, MP from Mirzapur, who was defeated by the SP candidate. The dissent in the party is seen as being driven by the growing rift between the party and the nationwide network of the Backward and Minority Classes Employees Federation built by Kanshi Ram from the 1970s.
BSP leaders in Delhi said the rift had always been there ever since the party got political power, but did not affect the political performance of the party in the elections.
The party performance is an anti-climax, when there was proud talk of being set to lead a government at the Centre.
In Delhi, where the BSP was hoping to win at least two seats, it was swatted out of the election. One of its candidates, Haji Dilshad Ali from North East Delhi, actually withdrew just before the polls to help the Congress.
Dubey’s criticism of his party supremo was open and vicious: “She is a dictator who uses abusive language and behaves in a way that is insulting for the Dalits whom she claims to represent... Does she think the Dalits don’t understand how she is misusing them?” he asks. “There are enough educated Dalits who know exactly what she is doing and saying.”
Says Abhay Singh a social worker from Sonbhadra, where the SP routed the BSP: “The SP was seen working for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, while the BSP was seen as just another party, hand in glove with the forest mafia.”
