Madhya Pradesh elections: BSP declares candidates for 50 MP seats
BHOPAL: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) named 50 candidates for the November 28 Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh on Friday. The Mayawati-led party, which has decided to contest all 230 seats in the state on its own, is likely to declare the remaining candidates by the end of this month.
According to state BSP president Pradip Ahirwar, the party's national president and former UP chief minister Mayawati will address eight public rallies in the state between November 18 and 26.
"The party president will address three rallies each in the Vindhya region and the Gwalior-Chambal region, and one rally each in Bhopal and Jabalpur," Ahirwar told The New Indian Express.
The list of candidates released in Bhopal on Friday includes 21 of the 22 candidates whose list was declared on September 20, and 29 fresh candidates. The candidature of Lakhan Singh Yadav from Sevada seat in Datia district, whose name figured in the first list of 22 candidates declared on September 20, has been put on hold, Ahirwar added.
The BSP, which won four seats in the 2013 polls, with 6.29 per cent votes, has reposed its faith in its four sitting legislators, including Advocate Satyaprakash from Ambah seat in Morena district, Usha Choudhary from Raigaon (SC) seat in Satna district, Sheila Tyagi from Mangawan (SC) seat in Rewa district, and Balveer Singh Dandotiya from Morena seat in Morena district. Dandotiya had won the 2013 polls from Dimani seat in Morena district, but will this time contest from Morena seat, which is held by MP health minister Rustam Singh.
Ahirwar added that out of the 50 candidates whose list was declared on Friday, while four are sitting MLA, two others, Ramlakhan Singh Patel (Rampur Baghelan in Satna district) and Ramgareeb Kol (Sirmour seat of Rewa district) are ex-MLAs. "Ten out of the 50 candidates declared on Friday are sitting legislators, former MLAs or have contested assembly polls as BSP candidates in the past, while remaining 40 candidates are fresh faces," said Ahirwar.
Reiterating that the BSP will contest the polls alone, the state party chief claimed that BSP will win 30-plus seats in the coming election with over 10 per cent vote, four per cent more than 6.29 per cent more than 2013.
"We're already strong in Rewa and Satna districts of Vindhya region, besides Morena district of Gwalior-Chambal region, but I can bet we're going to win 30-plus seats in Gwalior-Chambal, Vindhya and Bundelkhand region. Let the results come on December 11 and you'll see BSP winning seats even in districts, like Chhattarpur, Panna, Shivpuri, Sheopur, Bhind, Balaghat and Damoh on its own," said Ahirwar.
"Just wait for December 11 counting day and we are confident of ultimately becoming the king in case of hung assembly and not kingmaker for any other party," he maintained.
Though the BSP won 11 seats each in 1993 and 1998 assembly polls with 7.05 per cent and 6.15 per cent votes respectively in undivided MP (before creation of Chhattisgarh), its best performance in MP post-Chhattisgarh creation came in 2008 polls, when it won 7 seats with 8.97 per cent votes.
In 2013 polls, the party had won four seats, was second in 11 seats and closes third in 30 other seats. Out of the 230 seats in the poll-bound state, 148 are general seats, 47 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 35 seats reserved for Scheduled Caste.
The party is eyeing winning 30-plus seats with over 10 percent votes in the November 28 polls through consolidation of scheduled caste vote (which is over 16 per cent of total electorate of the state) particularly on the back of sharp caste polarization in the wake of April 2 caste violence in Gwalior-Chambal region and the ongoing movement by upper caste against the amended SC/ST Atrocities Act in state's region neighbouring UP.