The BSP will indulge in a show of strength on the occasion of the death anniversary of its founder Kanshi Ram on October 9 at Lucknow’s Rashtriya Dalit Smarak which the party observes as the Mahaparinirvan Diwas in what will officially mark as the party chief Mayawati’s comeback- also being seen as the party sounding the bugle for the 2027 state assembly polls. Mayawati had last addressed a rally on the occasion in 2021.
But the party’s attempts to revive itself are giving jitters to its rivals including Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) which are dismissing the BSP’s efforts as an attempt “to indirectly help the BJP” in Uttar Pradesh. The stance of Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Aazad’s Azad Samaj Party (ASP)-Kanshi Ram has also exposed the dynamics between the arch rivals BSP and the ASP-KR with the latter postponing an event that it had planned on October 9 in Lucknow.
Speaking to TDG, several BSP leaders enumerated the different ways the party is using to ensure that the October 9 event in Lucknow is a grand success. With slogans like “October 9 Lucknow Chalo (Let’s walk to Lucknow on October 9)” and “Chalo bulaava aya hai, Maya behena ne bulaaya hai (Answer sister Maya’s call),” the party is expecting to gather at least eight lakh supporters coming Thursday.
Indu Choudhary of the BSP who fought the Lok Sabha poll from UP’s Lalganj seat in 2024 general election told TDG that the party is sounding the bugle for the fight of 2027 and will attempt to repeat the success of 2007 UP state polls in 2027 and take the party in its “golden era” of 2007 when it emerged as the largest party and Mayawati unseated Mulayam Singh Yadav as the state chief minister.
Asked if the rally was part of its campaign ahead of 2027 polls, Choudhary said that it is a part of BSP’s long-term strategy as part of which behenji (Mayawati) has already reorganised the party cadre at booth and sector level. “The effort is to negate the perception that the elephant (BSP symbol) has sat down and is weakened,” she said.
While Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is set to meet his party’s founding member and veteran leader Azam Khan on October 8, a day before Mayawati’s mega rally, Congress and a UP BJP leader too have hit out at the BSP ahead of the October 9 rally.
Akhilesh to meet Azam Khan on October 8, Cong attacks Maya
A day before the BSP’s mega rally and amid speculations that Khan was cosying up to the BSP, the SP chief is set to meet Khan on Wednesday after his visit to Bareilly.
Although Khan had earlier declared that he was not “saleable,” speculation about his sending feelers to the BSP is rife and Akhilesh’s visit is being seen as an attempt to send a message to Khan and the Muslim community ahead of the BSP’s rally.
Senior SP leader and Akhilesh confidante Arvind Singh Gope had met Khan on Sunday in what is being seen as a meeting to prepare ground for the big meeting between Akhilesh and Khan who have had their differences with the latter’s supporters voicing concerns about the SP chief not visiting Khan when he was in jail for almost five years. Akhilesh’s team has repeatedly dismissed such allegations stating that his closest aides had been in touch with Khan when he was in jail and extended all help to Khan, who was once the sole Muslim face of the party. The win of Mohibullah Nadvi from Rampur in the Lok Sabha elections and the events in the run-up to the polls have also added to the difficulties between Akhilesh and Khan.
Speaking to TSG, a senior SP leader confirmed that Akhilesh’s meeting with Azam Khan is confirmed for Wednesday as of now.
Asked if it was also aimed at sending a message to the Muslim community ahead of the BSP chief’s mega rally on Thursday, the leader said that their programme was already fixed.
Significantly, the Congress which had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the SP has already dismissed Mayawati’s rally with party’s Dalit leader Udit Raj stating that political gains from such a show of strength would indirectly help the BJP in UP.
Raj who is a former MP and National chairman of the Confederation of Dalit, OBC, Minority and Tribal Organisations (DOMA) alleged that BSP not using its energy to resist election rigging and safeguard of democracy is a betrayal of Kanshi Ram’s legacy.
Chandrashekhar’s ASP-KR postpones its event after declaration of Maya’s rally to avoid comparison with BSP
In an interesting turn of events, Chandrashekhar’s ASP-KR which is the BSP’s chief rival in UP has decided to postpone its planned event in Lucknow which was to coincide with Mayawati’s rally.
The ASP-KR which is holding prabuddha sammelans (meetings with dignitaries) across UP has decided to hold its event after completing its meetings in all the 18 commissionerates of UP.
Speaking to TSG, a senior ASP-KR leader said that the party does not intend to have any comparison with the BSP by holding a parallel rally on the same day when Mayawati is set to hold a rally.
Speaking to TSG, Shashikant Pandey, a professor of political science at the Babasaheb Bhimrao University of Lucknow explained that it was plausible that Chandrashekhar would avoid any direct confrontation with Mayawati.
“Chandrashekhar would like to tread cautiously and avoid a direct confrontation with Mayawati so as to ensure that the Dalit community doesn’t get a message that he is trying to divide the Dalit vote. Moreover, Mayawati still commands a lot of respect within the community and he would like to ensure that he doesn’t target her directly like he has always done. As far as the Congress is concerned, given the decline of the BSP, the party sees an opportunity in wooing its Dalit voter who was once a core voter of the grand old party. Given that Rahul Gandhi’s pitch for caste census and expansion of reservation has worked in the Congress’ favour in the LS polls, the party is trying to reach out to the Dalit voter. The performance of SP in 2024 election results has shown that parties other than the BSP especially the SP have made significant inroads in the BSP’s votebank whose voteshare has dropped to 9.39 per cent in the general election down from 19.42 in 2019 LS polls,” he said.
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Sofia Babu Chacko is a journalist with over five years of experience covering Indian politics, crime, human rights, gender issues, and stories about marginalized communities. She believes that every voice matters, and journalism has a vital role to play in amplifying those voices. Sofia is committed to creating impact and shedding light on stories that truly matter. Beyond her work in the newsroom, she is also a music enthusiast who enjoys singing.
