The Bahujan Samaj Party is striving to regain its lost ground and vote share above 4 per cent in Rajasthan and plans to field 200 candidates in the November 25 state assembly polls. It may be noted that the BSP was once considered as the “third front” after the Congress and the BJP in the state.

Meanwhile, five of the six BSP MLAs, who joined the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in 2019 and enjoyed the official portfolios not less than of ministers of state, are camping in Delhi and meeting the chief minister at the Jodhpur House and other AICC functionaries to secure their Congress tickets from the same constituencies where they had won on the BSP ticket in 2018 assembly polls.

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When contacted one of them Lakhan Singh Meena told The Statesman they all were confident to contest this assembly election on the Congress ticket. Four others are Deep Chand, Joginder Singh Avana, Wazib Ali, and Sandeep Kumar.

The sixth BSP deserter and subsequent Congress minister, Rajendra Singh Gudha, who has been sacked for his alleged remarks in the assembly, joined the Shiv Sena (Shinde group) last month.

The vote share of the BSP in the 2008 assembly polls was 7.6 per cent, which dropped due to the merger of its six MLAs into the Congress party from 7.6 per cent to 4.08 per cent in the 2018 assembly election.

Since 1998, the BSP has given 19 MLAs to the Rajasthan assembly. Except for its four MLAs, 14 had joined the Congress, one with BJP. In the last assembly polls, the BSP had over 14.35 lakh voters (4.08 per cent) with six MLAs in the state, hence it often cropped up as a third party with some heft in the state.

Finding its roots in 1998 assembly election with a vote share of 2.2 per cent when late Kanshi Ram entered poll politics from Bharatpur and Alwar districts has emerged as the third front and played a key role in the Gehlot government formation in 2008 and 2018. It has the ground strength of the Dalit community. Also, a young generation of leaders, like Jagat Singh Dayama and Mahir Azad, contested the polls in 1998.

Not only its MLAs who won and migrated to the Congress fold, but its state party functionaries also faced leadership crisis after Kanshi Ram’s death. Apart from this, the party functionaries from Uttar Pradesh, especially Mayawati, made a few visits to the state for electioneering.

In an interaction with The Statesman, the BSP state president, Bhagwan Singh Baba, who revived the party and kept everyone connected to the organization after shifting of his six MLAs to the Congress since 2019, said the party would field candidates on all 200 seats. So far, the party has declared the names of 12 contestants.

Baba said it would give a special focus on 60 seats especially of Bharatpur, Alwar, Dholpur, Dausa, Karauli and adjoining eastern districts and try to raise its win tally up to a satisfactory number so that no winner can migrate to the Congress or the BJP. Party supremo Mayawati will be holding poll-related meetings and spending four days in Rajasthan from November 17 to 20, he said.

“BSP is trying its best to come up and renew its vigour on major issues like atrocities on Dalits, rape, unemployment, leaks of exam question papers, and hunger. These would be the party’s main agenda to draw public attention,” Baba asserted.