BSP drops Brahmin candidates, courts Muslims in civic body elections

Lucknow: With the local and urban body elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled to take place in two phases on May 4 and 11, major political parties are reportedly focusing on social equations based on religion and caste, in anticipation of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

As per reports, the BSP, led by Mayawati, is said to have replaced Brahmin candidates with Muslim nominees, even in seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Out of the BSP's 17 mayoral candidates, 11 are reportedly Muslim, while the remaining six comprise three OBC nominees and two Scheduled Castes (SC) candidates.

BSP leader Mayawati is said to be experimenting with a new strategy in the present social arithmetic following significant losses for the party in the state since the 2012 Assembly polls. In the upcoming mayoral polls, the BSP has not nominated any Brahmin candidates. The party's only upper caste nominee for this election is Naval Kishore Nathani in Gorakhpur, who belongs to the Agrawal (Bania) community.

According to sources, BSP leader Mayawati has observed that the party's social engineering strategy that worked in 2007 did not yield the same results in subsequent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. As such, the party is now seeking to appeal to Dalits and Muslims, who are said to feel marginalized in the state. The BSP sees an opportunity to gain their support, given the perceived failure of even the Samajwadi Party (SP) to address their concerns, despite relying on their votes in the past.

BSP leaders believe that the party's combination of Dalits and Muslims is poised to be a more formidable political force than the SP's Muslim-Yadav formula. The BSP is also seeking to communicate to the Muslim community about the government's efforts to promote their welfare and progress under Mayawati's leadership.