BSP focuses on ZP polls to boost state election chances

HARIDWAR: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is trying to regain its political foothold in Uttarakhand, is focusing on Haridwar zila panchayat elections scheduled later this year as part of its preparations for next year’s state assembly polls, according to party leaders.

The term of the Haridwar zila panchayat board expired early this May but elections have been delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic and Mahakumbh fair.

“If we want to win maximum assembly seats, then we will first have to win zila panchayat polls. We need to ensure public issues are raised effectively and also make sincere efforts to solve them at our own level. BSP doesn’t believe in pre-poll promises and announcements but on working at grass-root level. We are already strengthening our cadre in all the 13 districts,” said Madan Lal, party state in-charge.

Working on the strategy, Lal and BSP state president Naresh Gautam have been focusing majorly on Haridwar, Dehradun and Uddham Singh Nagar districts. They have held meetings with party state office-bearers and district presidents in Kumaon and Garhwal divisions in the past few weeks.

The party is also training its booth-level activists to assist voters in getting their names enrolled in the voter list.

“Every single vote gets counted, so we need to ensure our respective village, ward and colony voters get their names registered in the voter list. Our activists are also assisting them on varied aspects and raising local issues effectively.

Through this, our party workers will ensure they get close to the public and also make them aware about our party’s ideology,” said BSP state president Gautam.

Lashing out at the BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the

Uttarakhand Kranti Dal for making lofty promises and electioncentric announcements, Gautam said that these parties “just want to win the election at any cost through publicity gimmicks.”

“All these parties are marred by factionalism. The Congress and BJP are changing their chief ministers in almost every state where elections are due in coming months. This itself proves that they have not been able to provide able governance,” he said.

Refuting the BSP’s claims, BJP Ranipur-BHEL legislator Adesh Chauhan said, “BSP has been rejected by voters both in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. BSP has not won a single seat in 2017 assembly elections in the state. How can they claim to win maximum seats? In fact it’s BJP which will win 60-plus seats in the 70-seat state assembly.”

Congress city president Vimla Pandey also refuted BSP’s claims, saying, “In rural segments, their traditional vote bank has now shifted to the Congress.”

The BSP is the largest party in the 45-member zila panchayat board followed by the Congress and BJP. In the 2016 zila panchayat elections, BSP won 16 seats, BJP 3, Congress 13 and the rest by independents.

We need to ensure public issues are raised effectively and also make sincere efforts to solve them at our own level MADAN LAL, state in-charge, Bahujan Samaj Party