BSP to project Mayawati as first Dalit PM candidate

Lucknow, July 17: The Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to portray its leader, Mayawati as the first Dalit Prime Ministerial candidate during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Although the BSP did not win a single seat in 2014 in Uttar Pradesh, the party is upbeat over the opposition uniting and also its own performance in the recently held by-elections where it tied up with its arch rival, the Samajwadi Party.

In an important meeting of party National coordinators in Lucknow on Monday, it was decided to project 'behenji', as she is popularly known, as the first Dalit Prime Minister of the country.

The party feels that projecting Mayawati as the PM candidate would help in consolidating the Dalit votes. Her Dalit credentials would be more acceptable among the non-NDA partners in comparison with the other leaders, the party feels.

The party's National vice-president, Jay Prakash Singh is of the view that the Dalits across the country want to replace Narendra Modi with her. She can take on any political party and has the capabilities of uniting all the non-NDA partners, Singh also said. The recent poll results in UP and Karnataka are testimony to that fact, he further added.