Poll debacle: BSP review meetings ending in fights

LUCKNOW: Rattled over their poll defeat, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) men are indulging in blame-game with some of their poll debacle review meetings ending in fights between loyal and dissident leaders.

On Wednesday BSP national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui had to beat a hasty retreat from the party office in Moradabad after dissenters demanded action against leaders who were in-charge of the election. There was also a clash between members of both groups. The rebels alleged that senior leaders took money from candidates and rather than depositing it in the party fund they embezzled it. Siddiqui refuted the charges but the workers raised slogan demanding action. Later Siddiqui left the meeting mid-way.

On Tuesday, a similar scene was witnessed in the party’s Meerut office where workers raised slogan against senior leaders Atar Singh Rao and Prashant Gautam. They alleged that both the leaders took money from candidates and did not campaign.

The office soon turned into a battlefield as supporters of former MLA Yogesh Verma and Prashant Gautam (Uttarakhand in-charge) clashed.

Soon after declaration of the poll results, former minister KK Gautam and Ganga Ram Ambedkar, a close aide of Mayawati, rebelled. Both resigned from the party alleging that Mayawati had dumped ideology of Kanshi Ram.

The worst defeat of BSP since its inception in 1984 has sent party workers into disarray and rebellion by senior leaders has added to the woes of the party. BSP had fielded candidates on all 403 seats and secured victory only on 19 seats. Mayawati, has, meanwhile decided to mobilize party workers by launching a statewide agitation on April 11.