By Faisal Fareed, Twocircles.net
The battle for Lucknow is almost halfway through, and it is clear that no party is looking at reducing its efforts. But would it be wrong to say that for a party like Bahujan Samaj Party, the next four phases will be looked at more in terms of “what it gains” rather than “what they consolidate”?
In 2012, BSP had got 24 seats from 73 seats in first phase and 18 seats from 67 seats in second phase. After that, the performance went down: in the third phase, it got just six out of the 69 seats; in the fourth phase it got just 15; in the fifth phase it got only three from a possible 52 seats; in sixth phase it got only nine from 49 seats and seventh phase it got only five seats from 40 seats.
But it is not as if the BSP is unaware of the same. The party president has taken stock of the situation and focussed all its energy on remaining phases. Leaders who are now free from first two phases are being shifted to next phases. In eastern region, Mukhtar Ansari, Narad Rai, Ambika Choudhary, Vijay Mishra—all of whom who joined BSP recently—have been brought to forefront.
BSP has in fact, taken special note of districts in these phases where it failed to win even a single seat. The districts include Lucknow, Rae Bareily, Sultanpur, Amethi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Hamirpur, Pratapgarh, Shrawasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Sidharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Bhadohi. BSP hopes for better performance in these districts.
The BSP feels that it can win new seats in Awadh and Poorvanchal region and if it retains its situation in Bundelkhand region, it will be beneficial for the party.