LUCKNOW: WHENEVER in power, BSP supremo Mayawati has created new districts and named them after Dalit reformers. She has also renamed existing districts after Dalit icons. In almost every district thus created or renamed, her Assembly seat tally has gone up.
In the latest gamble, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has renamed the district carved out of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s constituency Amethi as Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar, even as she renamed Kanpur Dehat district as Ramabai Nagar.
Sources said that the notion expressed in certain quarters that creation of Amethi district will help her push party candidate to the post of zila panchayat chairman is wide off the mark. Amethi already has nagar panchayat.
They said that in neighbouring Rae Bareli, represented by Sonia Gandhi, there is zila panchayat. Ashok Singh, elected with the Samajwadi Party support, was the zila panchayat chief, and later became a member of the BSP. After his death, a committee of three, all BSP members, is looking after the work. But there is no development work except whatever is being done by the Central Government agencies.
Her party leaders believe that creation or renaming districts has been a motivating factor for Dalits to tilt towards the BSP.
“The name of a Dalit icon matters. It transforms the area into a high-visibility zone. And the party gains significantly in the next polls. It is long-term politics,” a senior party functionary told Express.
“It is related to Dalit pride. Our leaders and iconic personalities have been ignored by all the political parties. The people gain confidence when she names an area after a thinker who is known for Dalit uplift,” a BSP MLA said.
According to an estimate, the BSP has gained at least three dozen Assembly seats in the districts named after Dalit thinkers.
For example, Mayawati created Ambedkar Nagar out of Faizabad in June 1995, after she became the Chief Minister for the first time. Out of five Assembly seats in the district at that time, her party had won only Katehari and Akbarpur. But in the 2007 state polls, she also won the remaining seats of Chanda, Gosainganj and Ambedkar Nagar.
Sant Kabir Nagar was carved out of Basti in March 1997, when Mayawati was the Chief Minister for six months. Her party held only the Haisar Bazar Assembly seat then. But in the 2007 polls, the BSP won four out of five seats, namely Haisar Bazar, Khalilabad, Khesraha and Sant Kabir Nagar.
The party also won four of the five seats in Basti district, namely Basti, Mahadewa, Kaptanganj and Ram Nagar. Gautam Buddha Nagar was created out of Ghaziabad
and Bulandshahr districts in June 1997.