Before the assembly elections in Punjab, the BSP-SAD alliance suffered two major setbacks. Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) state president Rachpal Raju was expelled by the party, while BSP’s OBC wing president Sukhbir Singh Shalimar tendered his resignation, apparently unhappy with the seat-sharing arrangement.
Raju is considered the BSP’s mass leader in Punjab, while Shalimar has also served as the party’s state vice-president. Both the leaders had alleged that the party’s state leadership was misleading Mayawati over seat-sharing with the BSP’s Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
According to a report in the Indian Express, Shalimar said that no senior party leader in the state was taken into confidence at the time of the SAD-BSP alliance. He said that with this alliance, the BSP will be on the back foot in the 2022 elections, because all the winnable seats were given by the state leaders of BSP to the Shiromani Akali Dal.
“This alliance also defeated the mission of the party’s founder Late Kanshi Ram, who was working for the economic upliftment of the poor and downtrodden,” the newspaper quoted Shalimar as saying. He said more party leaders would resign in the coming days.
After a gap of about 25 years, the SAD and the BSP formally aligned Punjab is eyeing a huge Dalit vote bank in the state ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
Dalits are around 31 per cent voters in Punjab and play an important role in determining the fate of political parties.
The alliance was announced by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and BSP leader Satish Mishra at a joint press conference. In the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the alliance had won 11 out of 13 seats.
Badal had said that under the alliance, the BSP would contest 20 assembly seats while the rest would go to the SAD. In the Doaba region, which has a major share of 31 per cent Dalit votes, the BSP will contest eight seats. The party will also field its candidates on seven seats in Malwa and five in Majha region. The assembly constituencies allotted to BSP include Kartarpur Sahib, Jalandhar-West, Jalandhar-North, Phagwara, Hoshiarpur, Tanda, Dasuya, Chamkaur Sahib, Bassi Pathana, Mahal Kalan, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana North, Sujanpur, Boha, Pathankot, Anandpur. Are included. Sahib, Mohali, Amritsar Central and North and Payal.
read all Breaking News, today’s fresh news and coronavirus news Here
.