The Blue Elephant has no space, it’s a 2-horse race

PORBANDAR: BSP supremo Mayawati, who had promised a repeat of the Uttar Pradesh experiment in Gujarat, is finding the going a lot more difficult than she would have imagined.

With the electoral race in this western state getting reduced to a two-horse race, the BSP is facing the prospect of getting squeezed out completely in the process.

In one important way, at least, the UP experiment is being replayed in Gujarat. In the assembly polls held earlier this year in India’s most populous, and politically most crucial, state, the BJP found itself being reduced to the status of a marginal player, with the electoral battle getting transformed into a bi-polar race, with the BSP emerging as the sole challenger to the Samajwadi Party. The saffron outfit finished a distant third, bagging a paltry 50 seats.

In Gujarat too, the Congress has emerged as the sole challenger to Mr Modi’s stranglehold. As the two principal players wage a grim and a fierce battle to capture the Gandhinagar throne, the other political players face the prospect of a complete washout.

As the campaigning for the first phase of polls drew to a close in the Kutch-Saurashtra region, the ubiquitous blue flags of the BSP could be seen only at a few places. Dalits, who form the party’s core constituency in UP and other states, it was clear, had more attractive political destinations in Gujarat.

``Our main aim is to destroy the BJP,” asserted Raju Bhai, a 35-year-old Dalit labourer hailing from village Khrishara, which forms a part of Rajkot Rural (Reserved) constituency. “The roads in our village are in poor shape. We don’t get enough power to irrigate our lands. Worse, our names were deleted from the BPL list, and incorporated in the APL list. Can you believe, there were just two names in the BPL list from our village,” added Savjibhai, another Dalit labourer from the village.

According to them, Dalits were going to vote for the Congress. ``There is a BSP candidate here (Devji Bhai Khimsaria) but he won’t receive more than 3,000-4,000 votes,” contended Raju Bhai.

It was clear that the BSP was fighting with its back to the wall to make a mark in the state. ``The voters here don’t want to waste their votes,” argued Jayesh Pola, an employee of Saurashtra Chemicals factory in Porbandar. The BSP had fielded a resourceful candidate from the constituency, but he was unlikely to transform the contest into a triangular one.

``The BJP and the Congress are engaged in a bitter contest to seize control of the state. The voter has very little choice. A third player is unlikely to invite his attention,” argued a Lohana businessman from Ranavadwala in the Porbandar district.

The prospect of the BSP facing a washout should come as a shot in the arm for the Congress, as it has till now emerged as the most formidable political platform for Dalits. The BSP’s emergence could only have ended up diminishing Congress chances.