As reports of Brahmins’ disenchantment with the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party gather momentum, the BSP is preparing to display its clout among the community next week.
The BSP will be holding a cadre camp for Brahmins in Lucknow on November 13 and the camp is likely to turn into one of the biggest Brahmin congregations in recent times. “Every Vidhan Sabha candidate has been asked to bring at least one busload of Brahmins from his/her constituency. The event will convert into one of the biggest rallies held in the state capital in recent months,” said a senior Brahmin minister. The cadre camp will be addressed by BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Misra who has lately been more involved in the party’s legal battles than in the BSP’s political affairs. The presence of UP chief minister and BSP president at this event is yet undecided. According to sources, the main purpose of the cadre camp is to make Brahmins aware of the “sustained misinformation campaign” against the BSP by political rivals.
“Since the past few months, our rival parties and a section of the media have been talking about Brahmins getting alienated from the BSP. Through this camp, we want to warn voters about the nefarious designs of our rivals and equip them to deal with more such situations,” the Brahmin minister explained. The camp will also be used as an opportunity to inform Brahmins about all that the BSP has done for them in terms of giving them greater political participation. It may be recalled that Ms Mayawati had assigned the task of consolidating Brahmin support to the BSP to UP ministers Ramvir Upadhyay and Nakul Dubey, MP Brijesh Pathak and MLC O.P. Tripathi but the quartet apparently did not make the required impact and hence the need for the cadre camp. The Brahmin cadre camp will also be used to display the BSP’s clout among Brahmins to the Congress, SP and the BJP — all of which have been trying to cash in on the community’s disenchantment with the BSP and wean it away.