Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati has enough reasons to be worried with the Congress, along with Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani, also posing a serious threat to the BSP vote base.
Ms Mayawati, who claims to be on the comeback trail in Uttar Pradesh, is no longer worried about the BJP making inroads into her vote base.
“Behenji has enough ammunition to fire at the BJP which has done nothing for dalits — in fact under the Modi regime, dalits have been at the receiving end. From the Rohith Vemula case to the Una killings, Saharanpur clashes and now Bhima Koregaon clashes, the BJP seems to have no answers to the BSP salvo. However, it is the Congress-Mewani alliance that could disturb our plans in UP,” said a BSP functionary.
According to BSP sources, Ms Mayawati is particularly anxious about reports that Jignesh Mewani will soon be making his political debut in Uttar Pradesh.
Apparently, the BSP which has already been losing ground among the youth and lacks a young leadership that can address new voters, sees a major threat from Mewani. The BSP, incidentally, is the only political party in Uttar Pradesh that does not have a youth wing or even a student wing. The BSP has rapidly lost ground in the past ten years. From getting 30 per cent vote share in 2007, the party slipped to 26 per cent voters in 2012 and has further gone down to 22 per cent in 2017.
The loss of seats has also been rapid. From 206 seats in 2007 to 80 seats in 2012 and a meagre 19 seats in 2017, the BSP presence in the UP assembly has been sharply reduced.
Mr Jignesh Mewani, with his aggressive style of campaigning and maintaining a direct access with the people, has started emerging as a favorite among dalit youth.
