BSP support paved way for SP’s victory
LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) successfully managed to transfer its vote to the alliance partner, paving the way for the victory of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls.
Though the support, announced by BSP chief Mayawati herself, came only a week before the polls, the BSP cadre managed to take the message to its supporters successfully. It resulted in BSP supporters coming to the booths in hordes to exercise their right to franchise.
Before Mayawati announced tacit support to the SP, many thought it would be a cakewalk for the BJP that had won both the seats with a huge margin — Gorakhpur (3.12 lakh) and Phulpur (3.08 lakh) — in 2014.
While chief minister Yogi Adityanath had converted Gorakhpur into an impregnable saffron fort winning the seats for five consecutive terms, the lotus bloomed for the first time in Phulpur when deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya contested under the Modi wave. However, the 2018 bypoll results were more of a repeat performance of the 1993 alliance weaved by the then SP national president Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
The alliance had then checked the BJP’s winning streak at the peak of the Ram temple movement, said SK Singh, a teacher at Gorakhpur University. During the BJP wave in 2014, BSP maintained its hold over the voters, polling 1,76,412 votes in Gorakhpur and 1,63,710 votes in Phulpur.
However, the consecutive defeats forced the party to test the alliance before the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha election. “The defeat of the BJP will motivate the party cadre that was disoriented after consecutive defeats. Now BSP will have equal standing in talks of opposition alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election as well,” said a senior party leader.
Political observer RK Gautam said, “The BSP did not field candidates in bypoll, yet it held sway over its supporters. This could be gauged from the fact that it secured 21% votes both in 2014 Lok Sabha election (where it won zero seats) and 2017 assembly election (Where it won on merely 19 seats).” In fact, many say that the BSP is the only party that can shift its vote to another party.