Lucknow: About two dozen fringe dalit groups that have become active on the eve of Lok Sabha elections are giving sleepless nights to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati.
Apart from the Bhim Army that is gaining ground in Western UP and also plans to spread its wings in eastern UP in the coming months, the other organizations that are eating into the BSP’s support base include Dalit Yuva Dal, Bahujan Azad Party, Rashtriya Bahujan Morcha, Mission Surraksha Parishad, Bah-ujan Samajik Parivartan Manch, Dalit federation, Dalit Caravan, Ambedkar Army, Dalit Revolution, Bahujan Samaj Swabhim-aan Sangharsh Samiti (BS4), Jan Adhikar Manch and Dalit Rising, among others.
A sizeable number of these fringe groups are led by rebel BSP leaders including Daddu Prasad, Pramod Kureel, Ganga Ram Ambedkar, K.K. Gautam, R.K. Chaudhary and Babu Singh Khushwaha.
Daddu Prasad has already invited BAMCEF members to a conference on September 30 in Agra. BAMCEF (All India Backward and Minority Communities Federation) was founded by late Kanshi Ram in 1978 and majority of its members are dalit government employees.
Talking to this correspondent, a senior BSP leader said that the outfits floated by rebel party leaders would pose a major problem. “These former BSP leaders are well known to our voters and the working of the party. It would be easy for them to mislead out voters,” he said.
The problem with the BSP is that the party does not have enough dalit leaders at the grassroots and state levels. Ms Mayawati has not allowed any second rung leadership to evolve and those that were there have either been thrown out of have left of their own.
