By Anwarulhaq Baig
NEW DELHI—Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which had no electoral alliance with NDA or opposition INDIA alliance, and fought on its own, spoiled the INDIA bloc’s chances in 16 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the just concluded Lok Sabha 2024 polls, where the BSP bagged more votes than the winning margin of the victorious candidates in these constituencies.
This directly benefitted the BJP or NDA partners though the BSP did not win even a single seat.
Had BSP entered into an electoral alliance like SP and other secular parties with INDIA who wanted to defeat BJP to protect the Constitution, democracy and rule of law, it would have resulted into further consolidation of non-BJP votes. INDIA would have captured power, and the NDA led by BJP would have been thrown out of power.
Mayawati going solo harmed prospects of INDIA alliance candidates
Her party’s decision to go solo in the General Elections was interpreted by political analysts as a bid to help BJP by causing division among Muslim and Dalit votes, and hence harming INDIA alliance. The analysts were not wrong as the statistics released by Election Commission of India after the poll has revealed.
Political watchers say that Mayawati was under pressure to compromise with BJP because she faces a disproportionate assets case and several corruption cases under investigation.
Experts say that Mayawati would have landed herself in jail like Laloo Yadav or Arvind Kejriwal had she not compromised with BJP. She did not bother even about announcement by some of BJP leaders to change the Constitution after formation of the new government and abolish reservation for Dalits, a gift given by Congress and that changed their social and economic status in the last 75 years.
Mayawati’s statement shows her ungratefulness to Muslim community
Instead of feeling regret and shame for what BSP supremo Mayawati has done at this historic moment in the history of India when the Opposition parties were fighting with all their strength to uproot “dictatorship” as Congress put in its manifesto, and politics based on hate and communal divide by top leaders of BJP, Mayawati tried to hide her guilt by asserting that Muslim community did not vote even for the BSP Muslim candidates. She has now threatened that the BSP may not field Muslims candidates in future elections.
She must remember that she became chief minister of UP, India’s biggest state in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007 owing to support by Muslims. She should have expressed gratefulness to the Muslim community, instead of intimidating the community that has never voted on caste or communal lines. Muslims have always extended their supported to parties and candidates having belief in Constitution and secularism no matter to which community, caste or religion they belonged to.
So, what Mayawati has done in a press statement after the declaration of results amounts to high degree of ungratefulness by her. The language of her statement indicates as if Muslims had mortgaged themselves to her and they breached the terms of mortgage by not voting for her party candidates – Muslims or non-Muslims. A rude and discourteous statement indeed!
Mayawati fielded 19 Muslim candidates in UP allegedly to divide Muslim votes
In 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP contested 424 seats across India and 79, including 19 Muslim candidates, in Uttar Pradesh but could not win even a single seat in any of the states. Its national vote share plummeted to a mere 2.04%, while in UP, a core state, it managed only 9.39% of votes – a massive 10.38% decline from 2014 when it had polled 19.77%. Mayawati had attempted to woo Muslim voters by fielding a record 35 Muslim candidates nationally, with 20 in UP alone. However, none of the Muslim nominees came close to even being runners-up.
In UP, where Muslims make up 20% and Dalits 21% of the population, the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance swept to victory, bagging 43 of the 80 seats. The BJP and its allies won 36 seats.
Data analysis suggests that had Mayawati allied with the INDIA opposition bloc instead of going solo, the alliance could have won up to 59 UP seats, severely denting the BJP’s tally. However, she rejected proposals from SP and Congress to join the INDIA front. The BSP supremo seemed to ignore the clear trend of her core vote bank eroding over the years across economic and caste lines, including Jatav Dalit and non-Jatav Dalits. From winning 80 seats in the 2012 UP Assembly polls, the BSP was down to just one seat in 2022 with 12.88% votes.
As in the past, Mayawati blamed Muslims for the BSP’s rout, claiming that Muslim voters did not support the party’s candidates.
According to ECI data, the 16 Lok Sabha constituencies where the BSP played a spoiler are Akbarpur, Aligarh, Amroha, Bansgaon, Bhadohi, Bijnor, Deoria, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Hardoi, Meerut, Mirzapur, Misrikh, Phulpur, Shahjahanpur, and Unnao.
As per the ECI data:
1. In Akbarpur, Devendra Singh alias Bhole Singh defeated SP’s Rajaram Pal by 44,345 votes, where BSP’s Rajesh Kumar Dwivedi got 73,140 votes.
2. In Aligarh, BJP’s Satish Kumar Gautam won over SP’s Bijendra Singh by 15,647 votes, where BSP’s Hitendra Kumar alias Bunty Upadhyay got 123,929 votes.
3. In Amroha, BJP’s Kanwar Singh Tanwar defeated Congress’ Kunwar Danish Ali by 28,670 votes, where BSP’s Mujahid Husain got 164,099 votes.
4. In Bansgaon, BJP’s Kamlesh Paswan won over Congress’ Sadal Prasad by 3,150 votes, where BSP’s Ramsamujh got 64,750 votes.
5. In Bhadohi, BJP’s Dr. Vinod Kumar Bind registered victory by 44,072 votes over Trinamool Congress’ Laliteshpati Tripathi, where BSP’s Harishankar received 155,053 votes.
6. In Bijnor, NDA’s Chandan Chauhan defeated SP’s Deepak by 37,508 votes, where BSP’s Vijender Singh got 218,986 votes.
7. In Deoria, BJP’s Shashank Mani won over Congress’ Akhilesh Pratap Singh by 34,842 votes, where BSP’s Sandesh got 45,564 votes.
8. In Farrukhabad, BJP’s Mukesh Rajput defeated SP’s Dr. Naval Kishor Shakya by merely 2,678 votes, where BSP’s Kranti Pandey got 45,390 votes.
9. In Fatehpur Sikri, BJP’s Rajkumar Chahar won over Congress’ Ramnath Singh Sikarwar by 43,405 votes, where BSP’s Pandit Ramniwas Sharma received 120,539 votes.
10. In Hardoi, BJP’s Jai Prakash registered a win over SP’s Usha Verma by 27,856 votes, where BSP’s Bhimrao Ambedkar got 122,629 votes.
11. In Meerut, BJP’s Arun Govil defeated SP’s Dalit candidate Sunita Verma by 10,585 votes, where BSP’s Devvrat Kumar Tyagi got 87,025 votes.
12. In Mirzapur, NDA’s (Apna Dal Soneylal) Anupriya Patel won over SP’s Ramesh Chand Bind by 37,810 votes, where BSP’s Manish Kumar got 144,446 votes.
13. In Misrikh, BJP’s Ashok Kumar Rawat defeated SP’s Sangita Rajvanshi by 33,406 votes, where BSP’s B. R. Ahirwar got 111,945 votes.
14. In Phulpur, BJP’s Praveen Patel won over SP’s Amar Nath Singh Maurya by just 4,332 votes, where BSP’s Jagannath Pal got 82,586 votes.
15. In Shahjahanpur, BJP’s Arun Kumar Sagar beat SP’s Jyotsna Gond by 55,379 votes, where BSP’s Dod Ram Verma got 91,710 votes.
16. In Unnao, BJP’s Swami Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi or Sakshi Maharaj defeated SP’s Annu Tandon by 35,818 votes, where BSP’s Ashok Kumar Pandey received 72,527 votes.
Mayawati gave more tickets to Muslims to “divide Muslim votes”: Shahid Siddiqui
Leaders cutting across party lines as well as activists and Muslim voices have criticized Mayawati’s statements, accusing her of deflecting from her leadership failures and peddling divisive politics by making Muslims the scapegoat.
In a tweet, former Rajya Sabha MP Shahid Siddiqui stated that Mayawati gave more tickets to Muslims to “divide Muslim votes” but both Dalits and Muslims saw through her “manipulative pro-BJP tactics” and voted unitedly for the INDIA alliance instead.
On his X, activist and Islamic scholar Samiullah Khan, in an open letter, questioned why Muslims should vote for BSP just because she fielded some Muslim candidates with no mass outreach. He reminded Mayawati of her silence when Muslims faced atrocities and institutional attacks under the BJP regime.
Mayawati sided with “anti-Constitutional” forces
Activist Gulrez Ahmed Ansari accused Mayawati of siding with “anti-constitutional forces” instead of safeguarding constitutional values and minority rights when under threat.
Writing on his X handle, senior journalist Shams Ur Rehman Alavi criticized the BSP for having no bond with its grassroots workers and mistreating senior Muslim leaders who spoke up for the community’s issues in the past.
Social activist Mohd Imran Ansari shared data analysis indicating the BSP effectively helped the BJP win 16 seats in UP by cutting into opposition votes, which the INDIA alliance would have bagged if not for Mayawati’s party.
Mayawati harbours “deep-rooted Islamophobia”
Activist Md Asif Khan alleged Mayawati harbours a “deep-rooted Islamophobia” for staying silent when Muslims faced injustices like revocation of Article 370, CAA-NRC discrimination and bulldozer actions.
Some reactions, like that of CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, simply termed Mayawati’s statement as “objectionable” without elaborating.
Activist Anubhav Singh slammed Mayawati, stating the BSP has become a “Jatav party” after Kanshi Ram’s demise. He accused her of practicing dynastic politics with her family and aide Satish Mishra, instead of working for the Bahujan society.
Prem Prakash Yadav criticized Mayawati for putting the onus of her defeat on minorities. He questioned her decision through his tweet.
A youth body, the Muslim Youth Squad denounced Mayawati’s remarks, alleging the BSP under her leadership has reduced itself to a “ticket-selling enterprise” and BJP’s “B-team” instead of genuinely representing Muslims’ aspirations.
Journalist Zakir Ali Tyagi lambasted Muslim voters who backed BSP, stating they should feel ashamed as Mayawati habitually blames the community’s electorate for BSP’s losses while cozying up to the BJP.
BSP, a “vote-katwa” party
AAP leader Nazim Chaudhary accused the BSP of fielding candidates to deliberately aid the BJP’s win on seats the INDIA alliance could have easily bagged. He branded BSP as a “vote-katwa (vote-cutter) party” in 2024.
Mayawati helped BJP defeat Congress, SP by dividing Muslim votes
Actor-critic Kamaal R Khan urged Muslims in UP to boycott Mayawati’s BSP, alleging she helped the BJP defeat the Congress and SP by dividing Muslim votes. He slammed her for considering Muslims her “servants.”
Journalist Prashant Kanojia, in a letter to Mayawati, warned her against taking the Bahujan community for granted and criticized her for selling tickets to Muslim candidates without proper representation.
AIMIM spokesperson Asim Waqar mocked Mayawati, saying she did not give Muslims tickets for free but “sold” them, advising the community against “buying” BSP tickets in future.
Mayawati a pawn of Sanghi politics
Screenwriter Darab Farooqui penned a lengthy critique, accusing Mayawati of “lying maliciously” and becoming a “pawn of Sanghi politics” by falsely claiming Muslims did not back Dalit candidates, citing data that disproved her allegations.
Actor Sameer Khan echoed the “Muslim as servant” narrative, questioning why Mayawati did not blame upper-caste Hindus for not voting BSP when criticizing the minority community’s turnout.
Writer Sharjeel Usmani termed Mayawati’s statement “unwarranted,” stating it deflected from her “leadership failure, lack of conviction and half-hearted campaigns” which led to BSP’s rout.
This criticism highlights widespread condemnation of Mayawati’s ongoing stance of blaming Muslims for the BSP’s repeated electoral losses. By refusing to ally with the opposition and instead going solo, she is seen as covertly helping the NDA. Critics argue that she is using Muslims as scapegoats to cover up her failures and intentionally benefiting the NDA and the BJP in these elections.
