BSP has only two additional seats to offer Dalits in UP

Dalit icon Mayawati has planned to give only two more seats to dalits than the mandatory requirement for political parties in the upcoming UP Assembly elections. If BSP goes as per the plan, Muslims and Brahmins will get more seats than their population ratio while OBCs will get much less number of tickets than their population ratio.

Out of 403 seats in UP Assembly, 85 seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, which means political parties contesting from reserved seats will have to field only dalit candidates from these seats. The political parties contesting from 403 seats are bound to give 85 tickets for SC/ST candidates.

“We will give 87 tickets to dalits and 97 tickets to Muslims,” emphasised Mayawati while announcing the second list of 100 candidates on Friday. If she goes as per her plan, BSP will have only two more dalits than other political parties like BJP and SP. Dalits constitute around 21 per cent population in UP and will get 21.6 per cent tickets.

“In the second list, 22 Muslims candidates have been given tickets while 36 Muslims were given tickets in the first list,” emphasised Mayawati, trying to woo the consolidated vote bank of the community. So far, Mayawati has released the names of 200 candidates for western and central UP.

In several districts of western UP, Mayawati has given over 50 per cent seats to Muslim candidates. She has fielded her old guard Tanveer Ahmed Khan against Samajwadi 

Party’s Muslim face Azam Khan from Rampur assembly seat.

According to 2011 census, Muslims constitute around 20 per cent of population in UP whereas BSP has decided to field 24 per cent Muslim candidates. Brahmins are the second highest beneficiary as Mayawati has announced 16.4 per cent tickets to Brahmins against their population share of around 10 per cent.

Similarly, Thakurs will get 8.9 per cent seats against their 7.6 per cent share in population.

The most ignored community in ticket distribution is OBC as they have been given 26 per cent tickets against their 45 per cent population ratio. OBCs are considered a strong support base for SP but BJP is also targeting this major chunk.