Date:10/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/10/stories/2008121054320400.htm

New Delhi

BSP’s undoing: last-minute changes and much else

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

WRONG MOVES: BSP supremo Mayawati

NEW DELHI: It could not keep its promise of playing the “spoiler” for the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Delhi Assembly elections, but with a two-seat victory the Bahujan Samaj Party has certainly made a modest beginning here in the Capital.

Monday’s election results were received with a “mixed feeling” by the party that banked on “social engineering” more than the customary poll issues.

The party has in its trademark manner maintained silence over its performance, but post-poll analysis within its fold has begun. “The performance could have been much better if the party had not changed the list of candidates at the last minute. That was a big mistake,” said a party official on Tuesday insisting on anonymity.

Listing the reasons that affected the party’s chances, he said: “The decision to drop the candidates who had been working relentlessly for the past few years led to a division within the party. Quite like the BJP, the BSP too was plagued by infighting.”

The “new criteria” for distribution of party tickets too came in for sharp criticism. “Ticket-seekers were given targets to meet before Arthik Sahyog Diwas (Mayawati’s birthday). Those who failed to meet the target were denied party ticket. This led to frustration among workers who had been following the party’s line and had already spent a considerable sum of money on consolidating the party’s base in the city,” said a candidate who contested the election.

He said the party also erred in resting the responsibility for running the campaign on “outsiders”: “Leaders and party workers were brought in from Uttar Pradesh, which in turn alienated the local leaders here. The party decided to replicate in Delhi its style of operation followed in UP, which was a blunder, because what works in one State need not necessarily work in another.”

The party’s refusal to put out a manifesto and instead focus all attention on the much talked about “social engineering” formula backfired, confess party men. “Delhi is a metropolis where you need to talk of issues, not just caste. The party could not even play the caste card carefully. It upset the Valmikis who are a decisive vote bank by opting to replace the Valmiki candidate by a Jatav. We lost out on the votes of the reserved categories because we picked the wrong candidates and of the upper castes because they are not ready to see the BSP as an alterative to the BJP and the Congress,” said one BSP leader.

Referring to the much-anticipated “damage” to the Congress, some candidates admitted that while the party could not “spoil” the Congress’s chances, it ended up eating into the BJP’s vote share. “The Valmikis that the BSP was eyeing chose to vote for the Congress, so eventually when we studied the polling pattern we realised that it was the BJP that the BSP harmed not the Congress as was expected.”

Even as BSP supremo Mayawati with her sights set on the Lok Sabha elections is waiting for another chance to challenge the Congress, her party workers are anxiously awaiting a shift in the party’s functioning style.

“We cannot have a man from Lucknow dictate the electioneering process in Delhi without taking into confidence the local leaders. If the local party leaders and workers had been consulted, the rallies would have been elsewhere with better results. A rally with Behenji was organised in Sultanpuri, but see how badly the candidate in that area has performed,” said the party functionary.