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With an eye on UP assembly polls in 2022, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) began its campaign with a Brahmin convention at Ayodhya on Friday. The BSP had rose to power in 2007 with Dalit-Brahmin combine and after 15 years, the party wants to repeat the same. The party has entrusted its general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra with the job to organize Brahmin conventions in every division of UP and mobilize this community in the favour of BSP.
In the first convention at Ayodhya on Friday, Mishra raised the issue of atrocities on Brahmin community in Yogi regime and said that his party will fight for them. He said that innocent Brahmins are being victimized in the BJP tenure and their representation in the government and bureaucracy is all time low. He said that Dalit and Brahmin together can form government and it has been done in the past when BSP came to power in 2007.
However, the first convention of BSP remained a low-key affair on Friday with the state government giving permission to a gathering of 50 people only. The BSP state unit said that following covid protocol, only few prominent people were invited in the meeting and later on, a large-scale programme would be organized.
It may be mentioned that in 2007 assembly polls, BSP had given large number of tickets to the members of Brahmin community and 41 of them had won. Giving it the name of social engineering, BSP supremo Mayawati had given due prominence to the Brahmin community in her then government. Later on BSP changed its strategy and gave the slogan of mobilizing Sarv Samaj (all the communities). The party did not fare well in the previous two assembly polls and in 2017, it could get only 19 seats in UP assembly.
Seeing annoyance of Brahmin community with the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), the BSP has again decided to work on the old formula. The party has activated its Brahmin leaders to mobilize their community in favour of BSP. The party has indicated that it would give sufficient number of assembly tickets to the candidates from Brahmin community. The party has decided to hold seven Brahmin conventions in the coming week and SC Mishra would address each of them.
Meanwhile other parties in UP too have started exercise to woo Brahmin voters. The Samajwadi party has decided to install a 108 feet tall statue of Bhagwan Parshuram in the state. Parshuram is treated as the biggest icon of Brahmin community in north India. The party has already announced to take out Parshuram Yatra in various districts of state. To counter this the congress may announce the name of a Brahmin leader as its chief minister candidate in the coming days. Congress has appointed well-known Brahmin face Aradhana Mishra Mona as the leader of legislators in the state assembly.
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