JALANDHAR: The coming Punjab Assembly elections are seen essentially as a contest between the ruling Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal)-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.

However, the Bahujan Samaj Party hopes to make its presence felt in the State, in general, and in the Doaba region in particular which has a sizable population of the Scheduled Castes/Backward Castes.

Once considered an upcoming force in the State of its founder Kanshi Ram, the BSP has never had much success since the party in alliance with the Akali Dal won three Lok Sabha seats, including that of Kanshi Ram in the 1996 general elections.

Even during the lifetime of Kanshi Ram, the party had suffered splits. This time, former BSP MP Satnam Singh Kainth, who floated the Bahujan Samaj Morcha, has decided to support the Congress.

With the death of its founder last year, the BSP's performance in the elections will be watched with interest. It is contesting 116 of the 117 constituencies.

Of the three regions in the State, Malwa, Majha and Doaba, the Scheduled Castes/Backward Castes comprise up to 42 per cent in Doaba, which consists of the parliamentary constituencies of Jalandhar, Phillaur and Hoshiarpur and 27 Assembly segments."We will be a major force and a deciding factor and it is wrong to say that the elections are between the Congress and the SAD-BJP. It is triangular fight with the BSP," party's Jalandhar in-charge Ashok Pradhan told The Hindu , as he prepared to hold a rally of party president Mayawati in Kartarpur.

Mr. Pradhan said the BSP vote was "intact." He was undeterred that the Akalis have fielded Avinash Chander, who lost the last two Assembly polls on a BSP ticket.

Following its Uttar Pradesh strategy, the BSP has allocated tickets to all castes, including the dominant Jat Sikhs and trading community of the forward castes, who otherwise identify themselves with either the Akalis/BJP or the Congress. Some 28 candidates belong to Backward Classes and 16 to the Balmikis.

Dismissing the assessment of other political parties that a three-way division of the BSP — BSP (Ambedkar) and Democratic BSP — has rendered the Bahujan Samaj ineffective, Mr. Pradhan said the party had chosen its candidates after considering the caste composition of each Assembly segment.

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