With reports of the Bahujan Samaj Party losing ground in Uttar Pradesh, UP chief minister and BSP president Mayawati has launched a massive exercise to set her party back on the rails before the Assembly elections.
According to highly placed sources, the chief minister has decided to deny tickets to nearly 87 of the 226 sitting BSP MLAs who have either registered an unsatisfactory performance in their constituencies or have failed to repair their individual images. The number is likely to go up.
The decision to deny tickets to nearly 40 per cent of the sitting legislators in the party has set alarm bells ringing in the BSP — more so, because Ms Mayawati had announced in May this year that all sitting MLAs would get tickets for the next elections.
“Ms Mayawati is reviewing the candidate list again and the names of more than two dozen names have been struck off the list. Of these, about a dozen have even been thrown out of the party. The 2012 Assembly polls are crucial for the BSP which is determined to retain power and the party cannot afford to keep any candidate with a questionable image in the party. If the chief minister can take the resignation of her most trusted lieutenant Babu Singh Kushwaha, the message should be clear for all others. Some tickets are being changed due to delimitation also,” said a senior party functionary.
Interestingly, Ms Mayawati is depending more on the image factor than on the caste factor this time. She has denied tickets to large number of Thakurs legislators and even shown them the exit door from the BSP. A senior Brahmin leader like Anant Misra has been denied ticket after being dropped from the ministry while the OBC face of the party, Babu Singh Kushwaha has also been completely sidelined.
All those who had been denied tickets, expelled, suspended or sidelined within the party are the ones who have a blot on their image.
“The BSP wants to uphold the dignity of public perception,” the party leader said.
and many of these leaders may not actually be wrong but they have failed to set right their image and we cannot carry their burden this time,” the party leader said.
The chief minister’s decision has generated considerable panic among BSP MLAs, many of whom have discreetly started turning to other parties for options and a ticket for the coming elections.