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LJP keen to make a dent in Mayawati's vote bank

"Dalit voters in U.P. are disenchanted with the BSP supremo"

New Delhi: Even as he plans an anti-BJP and anti-SP plank, the LJP headed by Ramvilas Paswan is trying to make a dent in the Dalit vote bank of BSP supremo Mayawati ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"The Dalit voters are disenchanted with Ms. Mayawati who has been of late inclining towards the upper castes leaving behind its `Bahujan Samaj' ideology," Mr. Paswan said on Wednesday. The Union Minister said in an interview that dozens of BSP leaders with thousands of their supporters had joined his party, which will contest the coming polls along with former Prime Minister V.P. Singh's Jan Morcha.

Mr. Paswan said ever since Ms. Mayawati had started siding with Brahmins and her party began dabbling in money politics by selling party tickets to them, people have distanced themselves from BSP and were looking for someone to fill the slot. "Now the electorate has identified LJP as the party which can fill the vacuum," he said.

With Dalits, OBC and Muslims accounting for a large chunk of the electorate in the State, Mr. Paswan said his party was trying to consolidate its position ahead of the coming Assembly elections and emerge as the "nucleus point". Asked who would be the LJP Chief Ministerial candidate, he said if his party came to power, the top post would go to a Dalit.

Mr. Paswan, who has addressed over one hundred public meetings all over the State during the last few months, said his Dalit Sena was active to garner the support of Dalits, minorities and OBCs who constituted 69 per cent of the electorate.

He said Dalits account for 23 per cent of the vote share, the minorities, mostly Muslims, had 14 per cent votes and the OBC constituted 32 per cent of the electorate. The LJP leader claimed Dalits in Eastern Uttar Pradesh had consolidated themselves under his party banner.

While the `Pasis' were a dominant group in Eastern U.P., `Jatavs' were in a sizeable number in Western U.P. Similarly the `Valmiki Samaj' was a force to reckon with in eastern parts of the State, he said. Mr. Paswan said Justice Party headed by Udit Raj and a dozen small outfits had joined hand with LJP to defeat BJP, SP and BSP in the State.

Asked how many seats LJP would contest in U.P., he said it would be decided when the polls were announced. To a question whether the outcome of U.P. polls will have a bearing on the UPA government at the Centre, he replied in the negative.

In Punjab, he said, LJP was going it alone in 43 seats while in Uttarakhand it was contesting 21 seats. -- PTI

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