Will dispel the ‘B-team’ myth, record high vote share: BSP

NEW DELHI: Blaming the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for eating into its vote share in the national capital, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has said it would do better in pockets where the former contests the Lok Sabha elections. seems weak.

The Mayawati-led BSP has fielded candidates on all seven seats in Delhi, which will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 25. “We are steadfast in our belief that our vote share will rejuvenate as we fight on our own. This will lead to a triangular match. The BSP’s vote share was more than 14 percent in the 2008 Delhi assembly elections when the BSP was in power in Uttar Pradesh, but after the rise of AAP, the vote share has come down,” confirmed BSP Delhi chief Laxman Singh -unit.

He alleged that his party’s traditional voters had switched to AAP as they could never go to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“BSP has nominated Muslim candidates in Delhi, while other parties have always shied away from including Muslims in the Lok Sabha elections. Of the seven candidates for Delhi, one is OBC, two are Muslims and one belongs to the SC community. They are all strong and will fight rigorously,” Singh added.

With a vote share of 14.8 percent, the BSP won two seats in the 2008 parliamentary elections in the national capital. However, a year later, in the 2009 general election, the vote share fell to 5.34 percent, and has been declining ever since.

In the 2013 parliamentary elections, the party achieved a vote share of 5.35 percent, which fell to 1.3 percent in 2015. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party was able to poll 1.2 percent votes, and its share further plummeted to just one per eligible voter. cents in 2019. In the 2020 parliamentary elections, the BSP’s vote share was only 0.7 percent.

Singh further emphasized that the ongoing elections would serve as a platform for the BSP to dispel the myth about its alleged link with the BJP or Congress. “Rivals always leveled accusations against the BSP; some would say B-team of Congress or others B-team of BJP. Behan Mayawatiji (BSP supremo) and Akash Anandji are ready assertively this time. We bring people together from all communities,” he said.