The Samajwadi Party is now planning to hit the Bahujan Samaj Party where it hurts the most, the party is ready to target the brahmin votebank that had catapulted the BSP to power in 2007.
The Samajwadi Party has now promised brahmins “greater representation” in the ticket distribution for the next Assembly elections and “greater respect” within the party set up.
“Are you aware that in the Mayawati regime, more than 1,600 brahmins have been booked in false cases for alleged atrocities on dalits? Among the upper castes, brahmins have been at the receiving end in maximum cases and this, when the BSP claims to be a pro-brahmin force,” said senior SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav.
The SP leader went on to say that brahmin leaders and ministers in the BSP were subjected to humiliation on a regular basis and were targeted if they even dared to complain about this. He added that brahmins had the power to sway public opinion and were known to be highly intellectual.
“We are confident that brahmins will join the Samajwadi Party in uprooting the BSP in the next elections,” he said.
The Samajwadi Party has now asked the Samajwadi Brahmin Sabha, one of its subsidiary organisations, to prepare a list of brahmins who had been unfairly treated in every district.
“We are already compiling the list and will release it sometime next month. The result will shock all those who think that the BSP is a pro-brahmin party. Except for a handful of brahmin leaders and officers, the Mayawati government has treated all brahmins with disdain and we will expose the truth before the people,” said national president of the Samajwadi Brahmin Sabha, Vijay Tiwari.
The SP is also drawing up a list of brahmin leaders who are disillusioned with the BSP and is keen to wean them away.
Mr Tiwari further points out that the Samajwadi Party has always held brahmins in high esteem and that fact that leaders like Janeshwar Misra, Rama Shankar Kaushik and Brij Bhushan Tiwari formed a part of the party’s decision making body, proves this.
This incidentally, is the first time that the Samajwadi Party is going all out to woo brahmins.
The party, until now, had relied only on the Muslim-Yadav combination to bring itself into power.
“We want to broad-base the party and bring in new vote banks in order expand our reach,” said a senior leader.