Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati has finalized candidates on 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh for the 2022 assembly elections.
The names of the selected candidates are being announced in public meetings organised by the party leaders in various districts.
The candidates have also been made in charge of the assembly segments from which they will be contesting the upcoming elections.
According to party sources, the BSP plans to finalize the candidates on the remaining 300 seats by mid-January.
Mayawati will launch the party’s campaign after the Election Commission announces the election schedule.
The BSP president has been accused of staying away from the political arena and has been limiting her activities to press statements and tweets.
According to party national general secretary, Satish Chandra Mishra, “The BJP, SP and Congress are luring leaders with tickets for the assembly elections.
“The rival parties have promised tickets to 10 candidates on a single seat, but their tactics had been exposed as the prospective candidates are now being pressured to bring people to public meetings. The rival parties are apprehending a revolt in the party and are, therefore, delaying announcement of candidates,” he said.
Mishra said that the BSP was working on social engineering formula of ‘sarvajan hitaye – sarvajan sukhaye’ to win the elections. The members of all communities were being given adequate representation in distribution of tickets, he said.
Mayawati is also screening and finalizing the candidates for the 70 assembly seats in Uttarakhand where the party will contest on its own as well as Punjab where the BSP is contesting assembly elections in alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Meanwhile, BSP district unit president Akhilesh Ambedkar said the party had finalized tickets on seven assembly seats out of the nine seats in Lucknow district.
To enlist the support of the minority community, Mayawati has fielded Muslim candidates on four assembly seats — Lucknow North, Lucknow West, Bakshi Ka Talab and Sarojini Nagar.
The BSP had managed to win only 19 seats in the 2017 assembly polls and is now left with merely six legislators since others have either left or have been expelled.
–IANS