LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, on Wednesday, extended support to NDA’s vice-presidential candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar “in view of larger public interest”.
Taking to Twitter, the BSP chief posted: “It is a well-known fact that the lack of consensus between the ruling and the opposition parties led to the election to the post of President, the country's highest post. Now, similar situation is emerging for the post of Vice-President, the election to which is due to take place on August 6.”
She added: “In view of the larger public interest and BSP’s own movement, the party has decided to extend its support to Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar in the election for the post of Vice President of India and I am formally announcing it today.”
Notably, the opposition has fielded former Union Minister Margaret Alva as its vice-presidential candidate against Dhankhar who had been holding the post of West Bengal Governor till the announcement of his candidature for vice-presidentship recently.
Former UP CM for four times and BSP chief Mayawati had earlier backed Droupadi Murmu, again the NDA candidate, in the presidential election which took place of July 18. The BSP chief had then accused the opposition camp of ignoring her party while choosing Yashwant Sinha as its nominee.
Mayawati had insisted that her decision to support Murmu was politically neutral and was neither in support of the BJP nor the Opposition. “This decision is neither in support of the BJP or the NDA nor is it against the opposition,” she had said while reiterating that the decision was based on her party’s ideology since Murmu came from tribal community for which the BSP had been fighting for long.
After Mayawati’s announcement in favour of Dhankhar, UP Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak was the first one to react expressing his gratitude to the BSP chief for her gesture. He said: “Behanji has always raised the voice of deprived and downtrodden which is well reflected in her decision to support President Droupadi Murmuji and now Jagdeep Dhankhar for Vice President’s post. I extend my gratitude to her.”
Significantly, Pathak was a BSP MP from Unnao before joining the BJP in 2016. After BSP’s announcement of support, Dhankhar’s position has consolidated in the fray voting for which will take place on August 6.
However, the political experts believe that Mayawati’s decision to support NDA’s candidate has come keeping in mind the caste equations besides her soft approach towards the NDA and her exasperation over being ignored by the opposition in the process of selection of candidate.
“Jagdeep Dhankhar comes from Jat community which makes a respectable chunk of population in western UP, Rajasthan and Haryana. Next year, Rajasthan will have the assembly polls and Mayawati is also a stake holder in the state. In such a condition, she wants to be seen as pro-Jat party,” said Prof AK Mishra, a prominent political scientist.