Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati is scheduled to address a mega convention of party workers from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan in the state capital on Sunday.
The main purpose of this rally is to mobilise and gear up the party cadres to take up the challenge of the next round of Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and the neighbouring states, including Uttar Pradesh.
Ms Mayawati arrived here in a convoy at about 4 pm and straightaway drove to a heritage hotel.
On the eve of the BSP convention, all leading roads and major intersections in the state capital were decorated with party banners, buntings and posters of B.R. Ambedkar and other prominent dalit leaders.
The BSP convention in Bhopal acquires significance as Ms Mayawati is banking heavily on the strong BSP support base in MP districts bordering UP to expand her party’s popular base in this state during the run-up for the 2013 state Assembly election and the obvious strategy is to work out this plan by building up the cadre base in concentric circles in other states.
After her party’s poor showing in the 2003 Assembly election in MP, Ms Mayawati had admitted at a huge rally in Bhopal (March 2004) that her party had failed to come up to the expectations.