LUCKNOW: Former UP CM Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will commence its poll campaign from Saturday, April 6 , in Uttar Pradesh. The poll campaign of the party will be spearheaded by party chief Mayawati herself along with nephew and party’s national coordinator Akash Anand.
As per the sources, the BSP has also decided the star campaigners who will accompany Mayawati and will also hold separate rallies across the state. The party insiders claim that this time, Mayawati has not included her brother and Akash Ananad’s father Ananad Kumar in the list of star campaigners.
As per the party sources, the introductory public rally of the party will be held in Nagina, a reserved seats in western UP and it will go to polls in the first phase on April 19. The sources added that the BSP chief is expected to attend the poll rally of the party in Nagina along with Akash Anand. It will be followed by a rally in Agra, the Dalit capital of UP, on April 11, Roorkee on April 13 and Pilibhit on April 15.
In the ensuing elections, the onus of making an atmosphere in favour of the BSP lies with Akash Anand who has been formally declared the successor of Mayawati.
The BSP, which had won 10 seats as part of a grand alliance with SP and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in 2019 Lok Sabha election, is going it alone in the upcoming general elections — a factor that might have triggered the departure of many of its sitting MPs anticipating better chances in other parties on the basis of their winnability in 2014, when the BSP had contested alone, it had failed to open its account in UP.
The lack of confidence is apparent not only among the cadres abut also in the top leadership. BSP, which used to take lead over other parties in releasing the lists of the candidates and starting the poll campaign early, is absent from the poll buzz so far.
At least four of its MPs, including Afzal Ansari who has joined SP, Ritesh Pandey and Sangeeta Azad who have joined the BJP and Danish Ali who is Congress candidate from Amroha, left the BSP as they were apprehensive of their prospects.
After launching party’s campaign from Nagina on April 6, Akash Anand will hold a rally in Ghaziabad on April 7. He will hold a rally in Kanpur on May 1 as Kanpur and adjoining seats will vote in Phase IV on May 13. The party sources claim that as per the electioneering plan, Mayawati and Akash Anand will hold 25 rallies criss-crossing Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati will also go to other states as well.
