BSP announces caste combination in UP polls with no pre-poll alliance: Mayawati

LUCKNOW, Jan 3:  Claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have accepted defeat in the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, BSP supremo Mayawati today released her party’s caste combination in the Assembly elections, reiterating that her party will not forge any pre-poll alliance.
Welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to restrict political parties from using religion or caste during the elections, Ms Mayawati said the move was good and she accepts it.
Claiming her sarva samaj ideology in the distribution of Assembly tickets and ridiculing the charges of the Opposition parties that BSP is a Dalit-based party, Ms Mayawati has given the highest ticket to upper caste, followed by backwards, Muslims and Dalits.
“Noor (glow) of the face of both Modi and Shah was missing during yesterday’s BJP rally in Lucknow  and by announcing that UP elections would not be an issue of win or defeat, but it would be a poll for responsibility, shows that they have accepted the defeat before the elections,” she said.  “Could the responsibility given by the people in 2014 Lok Sabha elections have been fulfilled by Modi and his team. It is a big question and now, they are again trying to confuse the people in UP.
Not a single promise was fulfilled after BJP came to power at the Centre, and now they are again talking about responsibility of UP,” she added.
Addressing her first press conference in 2017, Ms Mayawati though, did not announce the party’s candidates for the Assembly elections, but gave the details of the caste,  who would be fielded in the elections in all 403 seats, thus ruling out any pre-poll alliances.
According to Ms Mayawati, of the total 403 Assembly seats in UP, the major chunk of 113 seats will go to the upper caste with Brahmins getting the major share of 66 seats, Thakur 36 and rest 11 will go to Kayasth, Vaishya and others.
The Other Backward Caste (OBCs) would get 106 seats, while there would be 97 Muslim candidates in the fray. Dalits will have 87 seats, 85 in the reserved seats and two from the general seat.  In her one-hour long press meet, the former UP CM said that candidates have been fixed in all 403 seats and none will be changed now. But, the names would be announced after the declaration of poll dates by EC, she added.
Alleging that BJP could target BSP’s senior leaders before the UP elections, Ms Mayawati said that people will teach BJP a lesson for its demonetisation move without any preparation, besides the party was not ready to give details about their own assets acquired before November 8.       Reacting to the ongoing fight within the ruling Samajwadi Party, the BSP chief said, “the dispute would create division in the Yadav vote bank and hence, Muslims should support BSP, so that BJP could be prevented in UP.”
There is a total nexus between SP and BJP and hence, Mr Modi did not made any remarks against the SP’s family dispute yesterday, which should be a glaring example about their hobnobbing, she said.
Claiming that the Dalit vote bank would be the deciding factor in the coming Assembly polls, she said each of the 403 seats in UP have Dalit votes between 50,000 to over one lakh, in addition to Muslim votes or the caste vote of the candidates can give the BSP an edge in the elections.       “Yadav vote banks are decisive in just around 60-70 seats in the state and now, when it will be divided in view of the SP infighting, their role is almost finished,” she said, while adding that her party has always promoted all caste and community, including Muslims, during her last four regimes in the state.  (PTI)

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