Congress To Spread Rahul Gandhi's 'Save Constitution' Message Across UP To Woo BSP Voters

Buoyed by Rahul Gandhi's 'save constitution message', Congress managers sense a bigger purpose of making a dent in Bahujan Samaj Party's bases in Uttar Pradesh. According to them, BSP supporters are a disillusioned lot today and the grand old party should launch a sustained campaign to woo them to the party’s fold.

New Delhi:After the INDIA bloc’s success in the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is planning to utilise the brand Rahul Gandhi and launch a campaign to woo the BSP’s support base. According to party insiders, the Lok Sabha poll results in which the opposition alliance won 43 out of 80 seats, with Samajwadi Party 37 and Congress 6, showed that the BSP could not win a single seat and had lost its relevance in the state.

This, the Congress managers said, was because the Dalit voters, who supported the BSP chief Mayawati all along backed Rahul Gandhi’s “Save the Constitution” campaign besides the fact that they saw the BSP batting for the BJP.

The Congress managers said the BSP’s supporters are a disillusioned lot today and the grand old party should launch a sustained campaign to bring them back to the party’s fold.

“The SC and ST voters in UP supported Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Save Constitution’ slogan as they realised the threat to the reservations and also saw the BSP playing as a B-team of the BJP. It was due to BJP’s pressure that the BSP chief Mayawati expelled his nephew and political successor Akash Anand from the party during the elections as he was attacking the saffron party.

The BSP has lost its relevance in the state by openly batting for the BJP. If the BSP had not supported the BJP, the saffron party would have been reduced to a single digit in the state. The BSP supporters are now disillusioned and looking for a reliable platform. We must capitalise on this opportunity. We will soon start a campaign to take Rahul Gandhi’s message to the villages across the state,” AICC secretary in-charge of UP Pradeep Narwal told ETV Bharat.

The Congress leader’s remark came on a day Mayawati reinstated her nephew and brought back Akash Anand as the national coordinator of the BSP.

According to Lok Sabha MP from Saharanpur Imran Masood, the INDIA bloc would have won more than 60 seats if the BSP had not fielded its candidates strategically to cut the votes of the opposition grouping’s nominees.

“There were around 16 seats where the BSP candidate divided the opposition votes and indirectly helped the BJP nominee. The INDIA bloc could have easily won those seats. If you see, the BSP strategically gave tickets to those who could cut the INDIA bloc’s votes. It looks like the BJP decided the ticket distribution of the BSP,” Masood told ETV Bharat.

According to party managers, a proposal to launch a sustained campaign to woo the BSP supporters and take the Congress message would be discussed between the AICC and state leaders. Besides, the grand old party would also make efforts to induct some prominent faces from the BSP.

Both Imran Masood and Congress Amroha candidate Danish Ali are ex-BSP leaders, who joined the Congress before the national elections. Former BSP MP Malook Nagar, too, had before the polls joined Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD, which had a poll pact with the BJP.