BSP set for a show of strength with Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations today

Lucknow: A year ahead of the UP Assembly elections scheduled early in 2027, Bahujan Samaj Party has been showcasing its strength through its cadre and supporters on occasions linked with Dalit icons, and the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar on Tuesday, April 14, will serve another opportunity for the party.BSP workers from across the state will gather at Lucknow’s Ambedkar Memorial in Gomti Nagar to pay tributes to Ambedkar.UP BSP president Vishwanath Pal said that the party has mobilised people from across the state for the event. “People will come through their own means and resources, so we can’t say anything about the expected turnout, but it will be huge,” Pal, who will be the chief guest of the event, said.Party national president Mayawati will pay tributes to Ambedkar at her residence and will not attend the event at the memorial.In a review meeting of the party’s UP unit on March 31, she asked the party workers to attend the event at Ambedkar Memorial in Lucknow in huge numbers. She also asked the cadre to bring their families along to show the opposition parties the actual strength of the true followers of ‘Babasaheb’.Like always, she also warned her people not to fall for the opposition’s designs, which will also organise commemorative events on the day, but only to take the votes of ‘Bahujans’, which include Dalits, OBCs and religious minorities.BSP’s commemorative events for the west UP region are usually held at Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida. This time, however, the memorial will be under renovation. Therefore, party workers from west UP will also reach Lucknow for the programme.After the party’s state-level event organised in Lucknow on Oct 9 last year to mark the 19th death anniversary of its founder, Kanshiram, Ambedkar Jayanti will be the second state-level show of strength for BSP.However, the only way in which it will be different from the last event is Mayawati’s address to her party workers.The Oct 9 event had Mayawati praising chief minister Yogi Adityanath for the upkeep and maintenance of Dalit memorials built by her govt and criticising Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav for not spending the ticket revenue at the memorials on their maintenance in his regime.Though she will not publicly address the gathering of her party men this time, her words will nevertheless be watched.The gathering of BSP workers in Lucknow will also be a message for the party and its political opponents, more so at a time when there are too many claimants of Dalit votes and ‘Behenji’s’ grip on them has been loosening ever since the 2012 Assembly elections in UP.BSP gave its worst-ever performance in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, winning only one seat, Rasra in Ballia, and polling 12.8% votes.