LUCKNOW: BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday released the second list of 51 candidates for constituencies going to polls in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh election on February 14.
The candidates declared in the second list include 23 from the Muslim community, 10 from Scheduled Castes, 12 from OBC, two Brahmins and four others.
A total of 55 seats will go to polls in the second phase on 14 February. The party would declare the rest of the four names soon, said Mayawati.
The second list of the party comprises names of candidates for segments across Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Badaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur districts. The first list was released on 15 January.
While the BSP hopes to rework its social engineering magic that sent it to the saddle in Lucknow with full majority in 2007, it has so far declared 109 of 113 candidates for the first two phases. Diving deep into the two lists makes it evident that the party is following the same trend of ticket distribution as it did in 2017. In the previous Assembly elections, the party had given tickets to 40 per cent (98) Muslim candidates of the total 403.
Similarly, of the 109 candidates declared so far, the BSP has given ticket to 41 Muslims (37.6%), 28 OBCs (25.6%), 18 SCs (16.51), 12 Brahmins (11%) and nine others. These figures, however, are contrary to the party’s narrative of weaving its social engineering equation mainly around the Muslim-Brahmin combination as the candidates from minority community dominate both the lists declared so far whereas the number of Brahmin candidates stands out to be just a dozen.