Mayawati rally on Monday to boost Sakhre’s chances

NAGPUR: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is gearing up to open its account in the state this time by winning the Nagpur North seat. Its hopes are pinned on the public rally party supremo Mayawati is scheduled to address on Monday to campaign for all 62 seats in Vidarbha.


Her rally will be held at Indora ground and could give a big boost to BSP North Nagpur candidate Sursh Sakhre. In the last elections, the BSP bagged 55000 votes and the was runners-up in the constituency, relegating Congress veteran Nitin Raut to third place.

The BJP campaign is also expected to pick up on Friday with party president and Union home minister Amit Shah holding campaign meetings at Chikhali in Buldhana, Karanja in Washim and Dharni in Melghat.

Union railway and commerce minister Piyush Goyal will talk to editors in the city and then interact with businessmen on Thursday, while social welfare minister Thavarchand Gehlot will be in Wardha and spokesperson Minakshi Lekhi will be in Amravati. However, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s proposed dialogue with intellectuals in the city on Friday stands cancelled.

The BSP has been knocking at the doors of the state legislature for nearly two decades, but in vain. After the Republican Party of India disintegrated into scores of self-driven groups, its disillusioned cadres wedded to Ambedakarite movement shifted loyalties en masse to the BSP with Mayawati deftly playing Dalit politics to win elections in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

However, the party’s efforts to make inroads into Maharashtra politics were ineffective mainly because the candidates its fielded were often from outside and imported just for elections. As a result, though the party was able to get votes every time denting Congress secular vote bank, it failed to win even a single seat in the state assembly on its own. In the meantime, the secular vote split by it invariably helped the BJP.

This time round, the BSP has made amends and is focussing on Dalits and minorities-dominated Nagpur North. “In 2014, we lost the seat by about 12,000 votes. We are sure of bridging that gap this time and the jinx of losing every time,” said a senior BSP functionary.

The BSP leader said the infighting in the Congress may go against Nitin Raut who is contesting again from the seat. Sitting BJP MLA Dr

Milind Mane

is affable and has a clean image, but there is a perception that he wasted his term as people’s problems and developmental needs have not been addressed. “The triangular fight will only help the BSP because of strong cadre vote in the constituency,” the leader said.