BSP’s performance nil, yet parties eye poll pact

CHANDIGARH: Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Sukhpal Khaira’s Punjabi Ekta Party (PEP) are separately wooing the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for an alliance, eyeing the nearly 34 per cent vote bank of the Dalit community, there is a question mark on whether the party is a force to reckon within the state?

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 22

Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Sukhpal Khaira’s Punjabi Ekta Party (PEP) are separately wooing the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for an alliance, eyeing the nearly 34 per cent vote bank of the Dalit community, there is a question mark on whether the party is a force to reckon within the state?

The BSP has not won any Assembly or parliamentary seat in the last two decades in the state. Its vote percentage has decreased from 16.32 per cent in 1992 to just1.5 per cent in the 2017 Assembly elections. The party recorded 2 per cent vote percentage in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Many BSP leaders have done well only when they left the party. The SAD has three sitting MLAs, Pawan Teenu from Adampur, Baldev Singh Khaira from Phillaur and Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi from Banga, who started their career with the BSP. Similar examples are in other parties also.

The BSP had once established its major base in Punjab as its founder leader, Kanshi Ram, belonged to Hoshiarpur and won the Lok Sabha seat in 1989. The BSP remained into the reckoning till 1997 when it recorded its last Assembly election victory even if it was on one seat only. Since then, the party has been struggling to find its feet in the state. Analysts have at different times termed the party B-team of some main party.

While the support base is eroding, the party leaders claim to fame is victory of nearly 50 BSP leaders in the local bodies elections in September last year. Party president Rachpal Raju terms it a revival of the party, “We won more seats than the AAP and even the main parties at some places,” he said.

Another BSP leader Balwinder Singh said the party had got a raw deal by the media. He said no party’s vote percentage could be termed permanent.

An Akali leader said though the BSP had very less presence but it could surely make an impact in certain pockets. The SAD had tried an alliance with the BSP but didn’t pursue it much.

The Congress is still riding high on the landslide victory in the 2017 Assembly elections and has not tried to woo the party so far.