By IANS
Hyderabad : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is gearing up to get a foothold in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh with party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati set to address a public meeting here Jan 6.
The party’s plans to emerge as a major political force have already evoked an encouraging response with Medak MP and former union minister A. Narendra reportedly deciding to join the BSP.
Looking to replicate the Uttar Pradesh formula by bringing together weaker sections of society, minorities and even upper castes under one platform, Mayawati will be holding consultations with the leaders of various groups after her arrival here Jan 5.
Mayawati’s visit was part of her efforts to expand the party base outside Uttar Pradesh, especially in the southern states. She has already addressed meetings in Mumbai and Bangalore.
The party expects that some smaller parties and the leaders of some castes will join the BSP at the public meeting. Besides Narendra, popular Telugu actress Vijayshanti and former advocate general S. Ramchandra Rao, who recently organised a public meeting of the backward classes, are likely to join the BSP.
State BSP leaders claim that Narendra along with his supporters would formally join the party at the meeting. Narendra, however, was not available for comment.
His aides said he would announce the merger of his Telangana Rashtra Samiti (Narendra) with the BSP as the latter had decided to back the demand for statehood to the Telangana region.
Narendra, who was number two in the TRS, was expelled by party chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao a few months ago when his name surfaced in a human smuggling racket. He was accused of sending people abroad illegally by using the passports of his family members and party leaders. Narendra, however, denied the allegations.
Both Chandrasekhara Rao and Narendra served as ministers in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre till August 2006 when the TRS quit the cabinet to protest the delay in carving out a separate Telangana state.
The entry of the BSP is expected to change the political scene in the state, which is currently dominated by the ruling Congress party and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Mayawati is focusing on the southern state at a time when the TRS is trying to strengthen itself and speculation is doing the rounds that popular Telugu actor Chiranjeevi plans to float a new party. While the actor’s fans and his Kapu community leaders are mounting pressure on him to announce the party, he still appears to be in two minds.
Mayawati’s party is trying to win the support of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and minorities, which together constitute more than 70 percent of the state’s 77 million population. The BSP is also likely to rope in those upper castes that were unhappy with the other major parties.
Andhra Pradesh politics has been dominated by the Reddys and Kammas, the two socially and politically dominant castes. While the Congress has a huge support base among the Reddys, the TDP is dominated by the Kammas.
BSP state president N. Suryaprakash is confident that the party’s efforts to emerge as a strong force in the next year’s elections would succeed as it was trying to offer an alternative to both the Congress and the TDP.
“Our aim is to create an egalitarian society which serves the interests of the backward and upper castes,” he said.
The party’s efforts to get a foothold in the state in the 1980s were a failure as it could not attract any major political leader.
The party opened its account in the state assembly in the 2004 elections by winning one seat from Visakhapatnam district. However, party legislator B. L. Raja Rao operates independent of the party.