SP-Congress pact may cut into Mayawati Dalit base

In the 2012 elections, out of the 11, BSP had won five, the Congress won only two seats, its then ally RLD won three, while SP could win only one seat.

By Pankaj Shah, TNN | Updated: Jan 24, 2017, 11.33 AM IST

A beginning could be made in the first two phases of the polls where the SP has given 11 reserved seats to the Congress.

LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati's worries in the wake of an SP-Congress alliance may not be restricted to the division of the Muslim vote bank.

The alliance, political analysts said, might also breach the Dalit citadel of Mayawati, at least in those reserved constituencies where BSP had performed relatively well in the past.

A beginning could be made in the first two phases of the polls where the SP has given 11 reserved seats to the Congress. In the 2012 elections, out of the 11, BSP had won five, the Congress won only two seats, its then ally RLD won three, while SP could win only one seat.

Though RLD has been edged out of the alliance, the Congress's fortunes may rise if SP manages to transfer its votes to it since the “grand old party“ has maintained its vote share in Dalit-dominated constituencies over the years. For instance, in Rampur Maniharan, where BSP candidate Ravindra Molhu defeated Congress candidate Vinod Tejiyan in 2012, SP candidate Vishwadayal Chotan came third.

While Molhu got 39.53% votes, Tejiyan and Chotan got 25.92% and 24.50%, respectively. Therefore, if SP votes get transferred to the Congress, its candidate can easily spoil the chances of BSP . Interestingly , Chotan is now a Congress candidate.

“Historically , the Con gress has been the `par ent party' for which Dalits voted. That, however, changed with the emergence of Kanshi Ram and BSP ,“ said S R Dara puri, a political ex pert. He said that if the Congress man ages to perform well in these seats with the help of SP, it would be able to cut into the vote bank of Mayawati.

Mayawati will address more than 50 rallies over the next month. On February 1, Mayawati will kick off her campaign by addressing a rally each in Meerut and Aligarh, the two west UP districts which go to the polls in the first phase, on February 11. She will end her campaign in Varanasi, PM Narendra Modi's LS constituency , on March 4.She, however, won't address any rally in Gautam Buddh Nagar, where her native village of Badalpur is situated.

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