With not a single seat won in Uttar Pradesh during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has taken a serious hit. BSP draws blank in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, where the Bahujan Samaj Party contested 424 seats nationwide and 79 in Uttar Pradesh, but they were unable to secure a single seat.
Compared to the party’s performance in the 2019 elections, when it won 10 seats in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), this is a considerable fall.
Various explanations have been cited for the BSP’s poor performance, such as the party’s decision to contest elections alone and the movement of Dalit votes to other parties. Furthermore, a few of the party’s most influential figures have either joined rival political parties or have indicated indications of moving away from the BSP.
Analyzing factors behind the party’s poor performance
In an attempt to increase the number of Dalit and Muslim votes it received, Mayawati’s party fielded 17 Muslim candidates in Uttar Pradesh. This tactic, meanwhile, was not successful as the opposition alliance comprising the Congress and the SP accused the BSP of functioning as the BJP’s “B-team.” This accusation was based on the belief that the BSP’s fielding of Muslim candidates would result in a decrease in the INDIA bloc’s vote share, thereby benefiting the BJP.
“The Muslim community has not been able to understand the BSP despite that party giving them adequate representation in the past several elections,” Mayawati said in a statement in Hindi, referring to Muslims as an essential part of the BSP. To prevent the party from suffering a catastrophic loss such as this one in the future, the party will thoughtfully offer them a chance in future elections (kaafi sonch samajhkar).
The majority of Dalits, particularly those in her community (Jatav), voted for the BSP, according to Mayawati, who thanked them for their support.
The BSP’s core Dalit voter base, which accounts for more than 20% of Uttar Pradesh voters, has historically played a big role in the party’s electoral success. Nonetheless, it seems that the Dalits have switched their support to other parties, such as the Congress and the SP, this time around.
The fall of the BSP in Uttar Pradesh has been brought to light by the rise of a young Dalit leader, Chandrashekhar Azad, who is leading from the Nagina Scheduled Caste reserved constituency by more than 1.50 lakh votes.
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