How BSP ensured the defeat of SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav

It is said that victory becomes easier when we clearly define our goals. It seems that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has made their road map clear for elections ahead. It seems to be adamant in weakening its arch rival Samajwadi Party (SP) and following the saying that ‘a loss for its enemy is a win for it’. While on one hand it is working on consolidating its voter base, it has planned to chip away SP’s core voter base.

SP suffers defeat in its ‘bastions’

The Bharatiya Janata Party registered a massive victory in the bastions of Samajwadi Party. BJP candidates Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi and Dinesh Lal Yadav aka ‘Nirahua’ registered victory in Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats respectively. The results of bypolls on both these seats are a shocker for the Samajwadi Party. As SP had always claimed it as their bastion. Both these seats went to polls as Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan had vacated their respective seats to get more involved in the state political affairs.

While the success has multiple factors at play, the most significant and interesting thing to note is that BSP played a spoilsport for the arch rival SP. The decision of BSP Supremo Mayawati to field Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali proved to be a successful bet in demolishing the SP bastion. Her Dalit-Muslim equation in Azamgarh delivered a crushing blow to the SP making it possible for BJP candidates to sail through.

Her decision to not field a candidate for Rampur Lok Sabha seat also helped the saffron party. In the Azamgarh seat BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirhua’ received 3,12,768 votes. SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav came runner up with 3,04,089 votes in his favour. BJP managed to win the seat by a margin of 8679 votes. Interesting to note that BSP’s Guddu Jamali got 2,66,210 votes.

The voter base of BSP swell which effectively ate the Muslim vote bank of the Samajwadi Party. In many Muslim dominated areas, BSP candidate got lead over the SP’s tall leader Dharmendra Yadav, brother of Akhilesh Yadav.

BSP Chief thanked the voters of Azamgarh and said this strategy to woo a certain community (Muslims) will continue for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which may give many sleepless nights to SP leaders as Muslims are considered their main voter base and a dent will mean a definite loss.

In her tweet Mayawati said, ”This UP by-election result has once again proved that only BSP has the theoretical and ground power to defeat BJP here. The party’s effort to explain this to the entire community, especially to the particular community, will continue so that the much-awaited political change can take place in the state.”

2.यूपी के इस उपचुनाव परिणाम ने एकबार फिर से यह साबित किया है कि केवल बीएसपी में ही यहाँ भाजपा को हराने की सैद्धान्तिक व जमीनी शक्ति है। यह बात पूरी तरह से खासकर समुदाय विशेष को समझाने का पार्टी का प्रयास लगातार जारी रहेगा ताकि प्रदेश में बहुप्रतीक्षित राजनीतिक परिवर्तन हो सके।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) June 26, 2022

SP – BSP – BJP trio

The 2019 pre-poll alliance between SP-BSP was the most buzz talk of the town as both of them are arch rivals for decades. Before the victory of BJP in 2017, both of them shared power among themselves alternatively. But the 2019 alliance proved to be a booster shot for the politically dead BSP. It won 10 Lok Sabha Seats. Many political analysts termed this as the biggest failure of Akhilesh Yadav. As he revived SP’s arch rival party which just proved detrimental for the SP.

In politics arithmetic doesn’t work; rather victory depends on political chemistry. All political parties take into consideration all caste, gender, ethnicity and religion into play, for that they adopt a multi pronged strategy this is what Mayawati’s Dalit-Muslim strategy is. So, if BSP achieves success in this strategy, SP may never come back to power. This is sometimes called in political circles as a tacit support to the BJP.

BSP’s strategy of weakening the Samajwadi Party is paying dividends and the party is gaining traction amongst the Muslims as well. So, if this continues SP has to devise a new strategy or accept the fact that it’s good old days are a thing of the past.