Lucknow.
For the third consecutive election in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party had to yearn for votes. It is clear from the results that compared to the 2022 assembly elections, this time more than 60 percent of the vote bank of BSP shifted to other parties. When the Dalit vote bank rejected BSP, the party could not even win the trust of Muslim voters.
BSP’s second step of contesting the by-elections also could not show it a new direction. Earlier during the Lok Sabha elections, BSP had to face a crushing defeat in the by-elections held on 5 seats. At present, the performance of BSP is indicating a big threat to its existence. If we look at the election results, BSP got defeated in Karhal, Kundarki, Meerapur and Sisamau. BSP’s vote on all four seats could not even reach the limit of five points, which became the reason for forfeiture of the candidates’ deposits. In Mirapur and Kundarki, voters have given preference to Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) and All India Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) over BSP.
BSP’s best performance was in Katehari seat, where party candidate Amit Verma secured 41,647 votes. Majhwan candidate Deepak Tiwari alias Deepu Tiwari got 34,927 votes and Phulpur candidate Jitendra Kumar Singh got 20,342 votes. However, less votes have been received on all three seats compared to the 2022 assembly elections. In Ghaziabad, the game of changing tickets proved costly for BSP and its candidate Parmanand Garg could secure only 10,736 votes.
Big leaders should maintain distance –
The reason for this poor performance of BSP is the big leaders of the party, who did not even bother to campaign in the by-elections. Party leaders lost their ground in UP in order to strengthen themselves in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. The candidates campaigned on their own, which could not translate into victory. The BSP supremo met the candidates, but their names were announced by the party at the last moment, due to which there was confusion among the voters. His efforts to win elections on the basis of social engineering did not work. The party had to pay the price for betting on unknown faces in ticket distribution.
BSP candidates got votes –
Seat – Candidate – Vote – BSP’s performance in 2022
Mirapur – Shahnazar – 3248 – 23797
Majhwan – Deepak Tiwari – 34927 – 52990
Katehari – Amit Verma – 41647 – 58482
Phulpur – Jitendra Kumar Singh – 20342 – 33036
Sisamau – Virendra Kumar – 1410 – 2937
Karhal – Avnish Shakya – 8409 – 15701
Ghaziabad – Parmanand Garg – 10736 – 32691
Kundarki – Rafatullah – 1051 – 42742
Well – Pahal Singh – 13365 – 65302
Total votes 1,35,135 3,27,678