The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BSP banks on ‘Dalit-OBC base and Muslim-Brahmin grace’

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Wednesday, Feb 06, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BSP banks on ‘Dalit-OBC base and Muslim-Brahmin grace’

T.S. Ranganna

Party confident of winning 50 Assembly seats
Enrolment drives, conventions to be held across State

Bangalore: The Bahujan Samaj Party will derive electoral dividends from its “Dalit-OBC base and Muslim-Brahmin grace”, according to State party president Marasandra Muniyappa. The BSP is confident of winning 50 seats in the coming Assembly elections by making inroads into the strongholds of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular), he said.

‘Key player’

He told The Hindu here on Tuesday that the party would be a key player in the formation of the next government in the State. It would strive to improve the lot of the poor in all castes and communities.

Backing his claim, Mr. Muniyappa said that in the 2004 elections, the BSP contested 91 Assembly seats and secured votes ranging between 10,000 and 27,000 in 43 segments. In the rest of the constituencies, it got 3,000 to 3,500 votes. In the Lok Sabha elections, the party obtained between 40,000 and 80,000 votes in seven constituencies.

In gram panchayats the party won 1,600 seats, in zilla and taluk panchayats, seven, and in urban local bodies it won 20 out of 500 seats contested and came second in 198 seats. He said the BSP would contest all the 224 Assembly seats.

Mr. Muniyappa charged the other political parties with dividing people on caste and communal lines. The BSP was concentrating on castes such as Kumbara, Dhobi, Savita, Uppara, Yadava (Golla), Kadu Kuruba, Madivala, Hoovadiga, weavers and fishermen.

Priority

Among Dalits, he said priority would be given to communities such as Lambani, Bhovi, Koracha, Korama, Medara and Nayak, who were recently given the Scheduled Tribe tag. A party base comprising all castes would be created by holding enrolment drives and conventions for each of them.

He said people from the “upper castes” and intelligentsia such as doctors, engineers, teachers and businessmen had joined the party during the membership enrolment meeting held here on Tuesday.

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