THE MAYA TWISTER

BSP chief Mayawati's allotment of seats keeping in mind sundry caste configurations could disrupt the plans of the NDA and INDIA alliances in Uttar Pradesh

- Prashant Srivastava

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati may have been late to the election jamboree in Uttar Pradesh, but that hasn't stopped her from creating a stir in the electoral battlefield of 2024. What till now appeared to be a direct fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the Samajwadi Party-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance suddenly acquired a new twist after the BSP announced its candidates. Bucking the perception of being the BJP's 'B' team, the party seems bent on spoiling their prospects, not just in the west but also in Purvanchal (eastern UP).

The BSP's latest shocker has been giving the Jaunpur LS ticket to Srikala Reddy, wife of mafia don-turned-politician Dhananjay Singh. The contest in this eastern UP constituency had looked like a straight fight between the BJP's Kripa Shankar Singh, a former Maharashtra home minister but a native, and the Samajwadi Party's Babu Singh Kushwaha after Dhananjay had been taken out of the equation (the ex-MP was convicted-for the first time ever-in a four-year-old kidnapping and extortion case) just days after he announced his intention to contest, but Srikala's entry has made it a three-cornered contest. The BSP candidate is currently the zila parishad chairman of Jaunpur and has an edge-even in the 2019 Modi wave, Jaunpur had voted for the elephant (the party symbol). The Thakur disaffection against Dhananjay's arrest and the 22 per cent Dalit and 11 per cent Muslim vote make the contest even more interesting.