Battle for UP: Mayawati to launch campaign with Agra rally on Feb 2

Lucknow, Jan 26 (IANS) Even before the Election Commission lifts the curbs on election campaigning, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has announced that she will launch her party's campaign for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls with a rally from Agra on February 2.

"The BSP chief will address a public meeting in Agra while following the Covid guidelines announced by the Election Commission of India," said Satish Chandra Mishra, BSP MP.

The announcement comes after opposition parties, as well as her own party members, have been questioning her absence from the campaign.

Agra district, which has a large chunk of Dalit voters, has been a BSP stronghold ever since Kanshi Ram founded the party in 1984.

The BSP chief is working to regain hold over Dalits who constitute the base vote of the party. The BJP had made a dent into this vote base in 2017.

"Riding on Dalit-Muslim alliance, the BSP has been able to bag maximum seats in Agra in the successive assembly elections. In the 2007 Assembly elections when the BSP formed the government, the party had won six of the nine seats in Agra district. In the 2012 polls when the Samajwadi Party wave swept the state, the BSP managed to maintain hold in Agra by winning six Assembly seats," said a BSP functionary.

In the 2017 UP polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was able to make inroads into the BSP citadel by bagging all the nine Assembly seats in the district.

The BSP candidates were runners-up in the eight Assembly seats.

Along with consolidating its hold over the Dalit voters, the BSP is also working on backward-Muslim and forward community alliance formula for the 2022 Assembly election.

For the first phase of UP election to be held on 58 Assembly seats spread in 11 districts, including Agra, on February 10, the BSP has given tickets to 16 Muslim candidates, 18 OBC, 9 Dalits and 15 upper castes nominees.

While other political parties, including the BJP, the SP and the Congress continued with their election campaign after the slowdown in the second Covid wave in July last, the BSP chief did not address public meetings.

However, BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra addressed Brahmin conferences in all 75 districts of the state.