Lucknow: In a move that may create a friction between the fledgling alliance between Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP, the BSP leaders from across India want their president Mayawati to be projected as a prime ministerial candidate for next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The SP has already been talking of Mr Akhilesh Yadav being projected as the face of the Opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.
BSP leaders from several states, who attended a party meeting here on Saturday, said that the projection of Ms Mayawati as prime ministerial candidate would unite Dalits across the country.
The leaders, however, were stopped from passing a resolution to this effect. “We were told that it is still too early to make such a move”, said a party functionary.
The BSP, however, is not in a mood to rush into disclosing its strategy and would prefer to take baby steps on this though its leaders have been promoting the proposal on the social media.
A BSP leader from Tamil Nadu, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told this correspondent, “Ms Mayawati is the only leader with a pan-India presence. The BSP has a presence in almost every state and no other party can claim to have this. As an administrator too, Ms Mayawati has proved her mettle as UP chief minister”.
The BSP feels that the proposal would not be opposed by SP that has already said that Mr Akhilesh Yadav would confine himself to state politics and Ms Mayawati could move to national politics. However, Mr Yadav apparently had a change of heart recently when he said that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav could be an apt candidate for the prime minister’s post in 2019.
Interestingly, both Ms Mayawati and Mr Akhilesh Yadav are now making a conscious effort to build bridges with other Opposition leaders as was immensely evident at the swearing in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Samajwadi leaders, meanwhile, are wary of talking about the proposal. “It is too early to say anything on one leader being named as a prime ministerial candidate.”
