Lucknow, 16 Aug (HS): The Bahujan Samaj Party will reach

'zero' in all four houses 37 years after its inception. Umashankar Singh, the

state's sole MLA, in the UP Assembly died on August 5. The BSP, like the

national party Congress, has no members in the UP Legislative Council.

The BSP was unable to return to the upper chamber when the

tenure of the party's solitary Member of Legislative Council (MLC), Bhimrao

Ambedkar, ended in 2024. The party has not yet opened an account for the 2024

Lok Sabha elections. Ramji Gautam is now the Rajya Sabha's single MP. His

tenure likewise ends on November 25, 2026. This implies that the BSP will no

longer have any members in any of the four houses.

Kanshi Ram formed BSP on April 14, 1984. In the 1984 Lok

Sabha elections, the BSP received no electoral symbol. Thus, its candidates ran

as independents. Mayawati, from Kairana, received more than 44 thousand votes

and finished third. Not a single contender won.

In 1987, the BSP was given the elephant electoral emblem. 13 BSP MLAs were

elected for the first time in 1989. In 2007, the party was at its apex, winning

206 seats in UP alone. The 2022 election proved to be the worst for the BSP.

Only one MLA could win. Currently, the BSP has two MLAs across the country.

Satish Kumar Yadav, who won the Ramgarh seat in Bihar, and Dr. Nachhattar Pal

from Nawanshahr in Punjab are MLAs.

In 1989, three MPs from Uttar Pradesh and one from Punjab

were elected to the Lok Sabha. Similarly, in 2009, the greatest number of 21

MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha. Twenty of these were won in Uttar Pradesh,

with one in Madhya Pradesh. This was the BSP's finest performance.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP lost all of its seats due to the Modi

wave. In 2019, BSP and SP ran elections together, which helped BSP. Their ten

MPs made it to the Lok Sabha. However, in 2024, the BSP, contesting alone,

scored zero points once more. The BSP's most successful time in the Rajya Sabha

was between 2010 and 2012. Following the formation of a complete majority

government in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, the number of BSP MPs increased to 18 for

the 2010 elections. This was the party's greatest level of representation in

the Upper House in its existence.

The SP's solitary Rajya Sabha MP, Ramji Gautam, was dispatched from its quota

as part of an agreement with the BSP. The BSP currently does not have a single

MLA in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. A Rajya Sabha candidate, on the other hand,

must have at least 10 MLAs as both a proposer and a supporter.

Three Reasons for BSP's Weakness: The core vote bank fell away: Senior writer

Ratanmani Lal claims that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, even the BSP's main

Jatav voting bank shifted away from it. Non-Jatav Dalit and OBC people were

already disillusioned with BSP.

Inactivity at the grassroots level: Former BSP leader Lalji

Verma (SP MP) says: The cadre-based politics that existed under Kanshi Ram's

tenure is no longer apparent in the BSP. There is just some activity around

elections.

Veteran leaders' disillusionment: The organization has

imploded as a result of many long-standing and powerful leaders being

marginalized and departing. Babu Singh Kushwaha (SP MP), a former BSP member,

claims that Mayawati does not want anybody else's queue to be longer than her

own. She is concerned because of a sense of insecurity.

Prominent figures distanced themselves from BSP: Currently,

the BSP is in its worst phase. One by one, all of the party's key figures have

been ousted. Mayawati has fired Ashok Siddharth, Akash Anand's father-in-law,

and National Coordinator Randhir Singh Beniwal, charging them of anti-party

conduct. Mayawati recently removed Anant Kumar Mishra, also known as Antu

Mishra, who was one of the party's Brahmin members.

Previously, prominent members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who were

considered extremely backward, such as Daddu Prasad, RK Chaudhary, Raj Bahadur,

Masood Ahmed, Barkhuram Verma, Sonelal Patel, Dinanath Bhaskar, Babu Singh

Kushwaha, Sukhdev Rajbhar, Swami Prasad Maurya, Ramachal Rajbhar, Omprakash

Rajbhar, Lalji Verma, and Ramprasad Chaudhary, had distanced themselves from

the party.

Similarly, minority and Brahmin candidates like as Jaiveer

Singh, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Ramveer Upadhyay, and Brajesh Pathak have left the

party. Because these people distanced themselves, the BSP's vote bank continued

to dwindle.

The position of a national party is also under jeopardy: The most pressing

issue for the BSP right now is preserving its national party status. The BSP

received only 2.04% of the votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Although no

MP was elected across the country, the party does have two MLAs. BSP MLAs

include Satish Kumar Yadav from the Ramgarh seat in Bihar and Dr. Nachhattar

Pal from Nawanshahr in Punjab.

However, it faces the issue of being recognized as a

regional party in four or more states. The BSP sees a chance in the 2027

assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. If its

performance in these states improves, it will retain its national party status.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi