Yet Maya May Be Eyeing Pact With Sad

[kdsingh80]

Yet Maya may be eyeing pact with SAD

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 29

The regional convention of the BSP here on the eve of Punjab elections is not without significance. At a time when the ties between the ruling SAD, BJP alliance are under strain, Mayawati’s announcement of “going it alone at the hustings” has a hidden meaning. It appears that the BSP is actually looking for an alliance.

Further, her bitter attack on the Congress and the BJP and not a word either in favour or against the SAD, suggests that the BSP is hopeful of an alliance with the Akalis. It is a different matter that the SAD is better of with an informal pact with the BSP. Past trends in Punjab suggest that while the Akali votes get transferred to the BSP candidates, the BSP votes go to the Congress.

Despite Punjab having the highest SC population in the country (29 pc), the BSP has not fared well in the past elections. In the 1992 assembly elections that were boycotted by the mainstream Akalis, the BSP had won nine of the 105 seats it contested, polling 17.59 per cent votes. Though Kanshi Ram, who floated the BSP in 1984, belonged to Khawaspur village in Ropar district, he remained politically active outside Punjab. His political heir, Mayawati who hails from Badalpur village in Uttar Pradesh, consolidated the party in Delhi and UP.

By the 2007 Punjab elections, the BSP stood fragmented, having split into the Democratic Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar). The BSP contested 115 of the 117 seats, but won none. Its vote share crumbled to 4.17 per cent.

Mayawati realises that Punjab (which has 34 of the 117 assembly seats reserved for SCs) offers a potential for power sharing. There is talk of her having met senior Akali leaders more than once in the recent past. With Manpreet Singh Badal breaking away from the SAD to form Punjab People’s Party (PPP), the Akalis could form an informal alliance with the BSP.

On 17 of the 115 seats the BSP contested in 2007, its candidates secured over 10,000 votes, a substantial number to tilt the poll outcome with the winning margins less than the number of votes polled by the BSP candidates.

During her 45-minute speech, Mayawati had nothing good to say about most political parties and politicians. But she deliberately did not make any mention of the main ruling party in Punjab.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110530/punjab.htm#4

[kdsingh80]

A very interesting development in Punjab politics.If Akalis dump BJP and form an alliance with mayawati then it will be great as she is considered as queen of Dalits.Mayawati single handidly defeated and will defeat congress BJP and Samjwadi Party in UP.This will also help sikhism to shed its anti dalit image.