UP polls: How Mayawati is reaching out to Muslims, Dalits

As Uttar Pradesh is gearing up for the upcoming assembly elections, BSP supremo Mayawati has already started appealing to Muslims and Dalits to vote for her party.

Lucknow, Jan 4: Caste, appeasement and religion will always be an integral part of politics. An analysis of the list that has been filed by the Bahujan Samaj Party for the Uttar Pradesh elections shows that the party is depending very heavily on both the Muslim and Dalit votes.

The party's strategy is to stitch together the Dalit and Mulsim votes. This was done taking into consideration the fact that the Dalit and Muslim votes constitute 40 per cent of the electorate.

The number of Muslim candidates has gone up from 85 in 2012 to 97 this year. The BSP's supremo, Mayawati, had said on Monday that the Dalits and Muslims should not waste their votes on the Samajwadi Party which has split.

BSP's seat break-up:
If one were to look at the seat break-up, it is clear that Mayawati is reaching out heavily to the Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. She has fielded 28 per cent from the upper castes, 24 per cent Muslims, 21 per cent Dalits and 26 per cent OBCs.

This is a clear indicator that Mayawati is relying very heavily on the Muslim votes and she is aware that if she manages to grab a lion's share of these votes, the BJP and the SP would be in trouble.

The number of Dalit seats has fallen from 88 to 87 when compared to the 2012 polls. She has also nominated 66 Brahmins, 36 Kshatriyas and 11 from the Vaishya and Khatri communities.

The number of Brahmins has decreased considerably from the 2007 elections. In 2007 the BSP had 86 Brahmins while in 2012 and 2017 it is 74 and 66 respectively. The number of OBC candidates being fielded too has fallen from 113 in 2012 to 106 this year.

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