LUCKNOW: Mirzapur, with a sizable Kurmi population coupled with its claim to fame for sending Phoolan Devi to Parliament, remains a tough turf for BSP chief Mayawati, who addressed a packed rally there on Tuesday.
The party has not won from this constituency for a while even as BJP and SP are vying for OBC votes by aligning with rival factions of Apna Dal, one led by Anupriya Patel and other by her mother Krishna Patel. BSP has put its money on social engineering, having reached out specifically to OBCs over past few months to strengthen its position.
Admitting that weaning away OBCs to its fold without a prominent OBC face was a stiff challenge, a senior BSP member said, the party hammered out a strategy to get around this problem. “BJP and SP are scrambling for support of Patels, who were traditionally BSP supporters. So, we have fielded several Patel candidates and are very much in the running. BSP has also fielded a large segment of OBCs from Maurya, Kushwaha, Patel, Bind, Lonia Chauhan, Pal and Gonds. Our candidate from Duddhi is the sitting MLA from Apna Dal,” he said.
At Tuesday’s rally, Mayawati addressed the menace of Naxalism in the hinterland of Mirzapur. She said, Naxalism thrived in the region because previous governments ignored tribals, who remained on the fringes and continued to be harassed. She said, the region was Naxal-affected for decades.
“Governments before and after my stint did not strive to bring Mirzapur into the mainstream. Tribals were led astray and oppressed. Naxals from Bihar were also holed up here. When I formed the government, tribal areas were developed under the Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojana. I also opened schools for children, built roads and ensured livelihood for the people. BSP worked to link Sonbhadra and surrounding areas with the mainstream. All other parties exploited you, BSP stopped that,” she told the crowd.
Mayawati hit out at BJP, SP and Congress for not doing anything for Dalits and backwards, but instead using them as vote-banks. While Congress refused to give a Bharat Ratna to BR Ambedkar and did not implement the Mandal Commission Report, gangsters were patronised by Samajwadi Party, she added.
“BJP has been extremely biased towards Muslims and has been implementing the narrow RSS agenda. Migration due to inflation, poverty and unemployment has risen alarmingly,” she said.
