LUCKNOW: Having taken lead over her rivals in announcing candidates for upcoming by-polls to 13 assembly seats in the state, BSP chief Mayawati effected some organisational changes in the party here on Thursday. In a crucial meeting, Mayawati appointed three new state coordinators — Munkad Ali, RS Kushwaha and Bhimrao Ambedkar.
The new organisational reshuffle is being viewed as an initiative of the BSP chief to strike a caste calculus by bringing Muslims, Backwards and Dalits at par. The newly-appointed state coordinators will report directly to the BSP chief and also participate in the monthly review meetings with the ground report. The BSP chief also re-implemented zonal coordinator systems in the party. Earlier, there was a coordinator for every three zones. Later speaking to media persons, BSP state chief Munkad Ali said the organisational changes were effected to strengthen the party in the state.
“Behenji wants us to ensure victory on all 13 seats in bypolls. The system of coordinator for every three zones has been changed now. BSP’s policy is to work in favour of entire society,” he said.
In a major shift from its policy of not contesting bypolls, BSP has now decided to contest on all seats which got vacated as the sitting MLAs got elected to Lok Sabha during 2019 general elections. Of the 13 seats, BSP had just one sitting MLA Ritesh Pandey from Jalapur in Ambedkarnagar.
By announcing its candidates early, the BSP will look to get ahead in the race as its candidates will have more time to work on the ground. Earlier, during the national executive meeting of BSP, the party had finalised the names of candidates for the upcoming bypolls. Sources said Qayyum Ansari was finalised as the candidate from Ghosi seat, Rajnarayan Nirala from Manikpur, Naushad Ali from Hameerpur, Akhilesh Ambedkar from Zaidpur, Ramesh Gautam from Balha, Sunil Kumar Chittor from Tundla, Arun Dwivedi from Lucknow Cantt, Devi Prasad Tiwari from Kanpur and Ranjeet Singh Patel was picked from Pratapgarh Sadar. However, the candidate from Jalalpur assembly seat is yet to be finalised.