Social engineering fails to click for BSP

Besides testing her much publicised and successful ‘social engineering’ formula, the BSP leader, in her attempt to garner as many seats as possible, had roped in a large number of turncoats and musclemen - all this with an eye on the top post. The formula that had enabled her to capture power in the 2007 assembly polls, however failed miserably in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

In fact, Mayawati had gone a step further this time and had made every attempt to secure support of every caste. The BSP had fielded 20 Brahmins, six Thakurs, 14 Muslims and 20 OBCs under its ‘social engineering’ plan. The party did not hesitate to field as many as 35 turncoats, several of them history sheeters, with cases including those of murder, dacoity, extortion pending against them.

However, almost all of its ‘criminal’ candidates had to suffer humiliating defeats.
Only five Brahmins, four Muslims and three Thakurs could make it to the 15th Lok Sabha. Even its state president Swami Prasad Maurya bit the dust in Kushinagar.

Interestingly, now the party leaders say that fielding musclemen went against the BSP. People like Mukhtar Ansari, Afzal Ansari, Mukesh Pandit, Arun Shankar Shukla, D P Yadav and Dhananjay Singh has a long criminal past. Barring Dhananjay Singh, all the others lost in their respective constituencies. One of them Arun Shankar Shukla had even been involved in the famous 1996 ‘guest house’ attack on Mayawati.

Shukla, then a Samajwadi Party leader, was part of the SP mob that attacked Mayawati, after her party had withdrawn support to the then Mulayam Singh Yadav led regime.
According to political analysts, Mayawati’s social engineering failed to reach the grassroots level. Moreover, several senior Brahmin leaders had either quit or were shown the door ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The observers say that the people of UP had preferred her to others only because they thought she would establish the rule of law in the state.

Much to their dismay, they found Mayawati not only offering them (musclemen) party ticket but also showering praise on them. The BSP, during the 2007 assembly polls, had given a slogan- chad gundon ki chati par, muhar lagegi hathi par (the elephant, BSP’s election symbol, will crush the criminals, so support the BSP), which had proved a big hit with the voters. This time however the slogan saw a complete reversal. The opposition coined a slogan-gunde chad gaye hathi par, goli chalegi chati par (the criminals are riding the elephant and gunning down the people). The BSP leaders now say the party needed to re-think about its strategy of wooing voters on the basis of caste and instead focus on resolving their problems, or else the party could meet the same fate in the next assembly polls in the state in 2012.
DH News Service