Lucknow: Even as the ongoing slugfest between her arch rival Samajwadi Party and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre hogs headlines, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati is quietly working on a “comeback plan”, gearing for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Ousted from power in Uttar Pradesh by the SP in the March 2012 state assembly polls, the mercurial Dalit leader has already had back-to-back meetings to evolve party strategy for the parliamentary polls. Informed sources say she has finalised 75 percent of the list of party candidates.
Mayawati is set to arrive in the state capital from New Delhi this week and stay put for over 10 days, according to her close aides.
“Behenji’s (sister’s) plans are very clear. She wants to regain Uttar Pradesh to play a larger role at the centre in the likely eventuality of a hung parliament,” a close confidante
told IANS.
Coming to the state in the middle of a raging controversy between the SP and the Congress only confirms the point that the leader was “neither interested nor perturbed” by the ongoing political developments at the centre, a
source said.
“Our leader knows that the SP has an edge over the BSP when it comes to bargaining with the UPA. Hence we are not interested in the strained ties between the two. We are looking forward to consolidating our position in the next Lok Sabha polls,” a senior BSP leader said.
Swamy Prasad Maurya, BSP general secretary and leader of opposition in the state assembly, said: “The people of UP have made up their minds to vote the BSP back to power, after a year of the SP’s misrule”.
“The writing is on the wall: People are realising their folly in voting for the Samajwadi Party (SP). Under Behenji’s leadership we will romp home with stunning results,” Maurya asserts.
He is currently in Gorakhpur to meet party workers in a run-up to meetings called by Mayawati at Lucknow. Pointing to the communal clashes and riots that the state has witnessed under Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s watch, Maurya says even the minorities have realised that the SP was only paying lip service to their welfare.
Party insiders say Mayawati already has a detailed report of all the legislative constituencies, their problems and the recommendations of party coordinators on the best face they could zero in on as party candidates for the 2014 general elections.
The detailed report has been studied by a group of senior leaders. After deliberations with middle-rung party leaders in the state, the BSP supremo would put her stamp of approval on the list before a formal announcement of candidates is made. “Behenji has reports and feedback from ‘ground zero’. She is interacting with party cadre at the district and block levels to ensure that the best candidate gets the ticket,” says Ram Achal Rajbhar, BSP’s state unit president.
Sources say the BSP chief has already approved the names of 70 party candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. IANS
