Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati is all set to play the Dalit card in the ongoing Rajya Sabha biennial elections by fielding her party’s candidate.
The BSP has just 19 MLAs in the 403-member UP Assembly but still it has cleared the name of party’s national coordinator Ramji Gautam for the tenth Rajya Sabha seat from UP.
According to sources in the party, the candidature of Gautam was finalised in a meeting of party MLAs on Thursday.
“We have taken a nomination paper for Ramji Gautam with the signatures of 10 MLAs and he will file his nomination on Monday,” a BSP leader said on condition of anonymity.
The Assembly secretariat confirmed that a nomination paper was collected in the name of Ramji Gautam.
Sources said Gautam was likely to file his nomination papers on October 26.
The election is scheduled for November 9. According to sources in the BSP, Gautam’s selection is crucial as he belongs to the Dalit community, a vote bank which Mayawati needs to consolidate her party’s position before the next UP Assembly elections.
However, the BSP, which won 19 seats in 2017 UP Assembly polls, now has an effective strength of 15. Three BSP MLAs — Anil Singh, Ramvir Upadhyay and Mohammed Aslam Raini — have rebelled against the party and are openly supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party while another legislator, Mukhtar Ansari, is in jail.
According to an Assembly secretariat official, at present there are 395 MLAs and it is necessary to secure votes of around 37 members to win a Rajya Sabha seat from UP.
The ruling BJP, having 304 members in the UP Assembly, is set to win eight to nine seats, and the main opposition Samajwadi Party with 48 MLAs will easily secure one seat.
The Apna Dal has nine members, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party four and five MLAs are Independents.
Interestingly, against 37 votes needed to win a Rajya Sabha seat, the BSP has only 15. Sources in the party said the BSP game plan was to corner the other opposition parties.
The Samajwadi Party will be left with 10 surplus votes after getting its candidate, Prof Ram Gopal Yadav, elected and the Congress has an effective strength of five legislators. Two of its MLAs, Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh, have already revolted against the party.
“By fielding a candidate, the BSP leadership will ask the opposition parties to support its Dalit candidate and if they refuse, their anti-Dalit mentality will stand exposed,” said a party functionary.
“Parties like Congress and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party do not have the numbers and the Samajwadi Party too with its present strength is not in a position to get its second candidate elected. If they all want to stop the BJP, they will have to support us though we have not yet held any discussion with them”, the BSP leader added.
Ramji Gautam, was named the BSP national coordinator in June 2019. He worked at a private firm as a chemical engineer before joining the party in 2015. Currently, he runs a business of pesticides and agriculture-related chemicals and belongs to Lakhimpur Kheri district.
It may be mentioned that among the 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh falling vacant on November 25, the BJP held three, Samajwadi Party four, Bahujan Samaj Party two and the Congress one.
The 10 retiring members are Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh and Neeraj Shekhar of the BJP; Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Ram Prakash Verma and Javed Ali Khan of the SP; Rajaram and Veer Singh of the BSP; and Panna Lal Punia of the Congress.
