Rising from the shock and dismay of the devastating defeat at the March state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati is trying to put her party back into gear.
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"We must show the Samajwadi Party its place in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in which we must retain our last tally of 20 seats at all costs," Mayawati told a gathering of her party leaders in Lucknow last week.
She also constituted a couple of committees with a one-point agenda to work towards re-vitalisation of the party, whose fortunes plummeted drastically after ruling the country's most populous state for five years.
As against its independent tally of 206 at the 2007 state assembly election, the BSP failed to score a three digit figure in 2012, securing a measly 80 seats.
Significantly, a bhai-chara committee has been constituted by her to push the party's much touted slogan of sarvjan hitaye-sarvajan sukhaye (for the benefit of all -- for the happiness of all) .
Representing the Dalit, Muslim and upper caste communities, this committee has Swami Prasad Maurya, Naushad Ali and Satish Chandra Misra as its key coordinators.
Mayawati initially chose to hibernate and shut off from all and sundry for nearly a month. But now she has finally risen to the occasion and is determined to rejuvenate the BSP in UP. Her immediate focus is likely to be on the 17 reserved Lok Sabha seats in the state.
"We must ensure that we get each of these 17 seats," Mayawati told her party men and urged them to "devote all their energies to plugging the holes in the party organisation."
Mayawati has also been training the BSP's guns on the ruling Samajwadi Party. She also focussed on highlighting "atrocities on Dalits" and "rise of goondaism" ever since the SP came to power in the state.
"Dalits have been at the receiving end ever since SP came to power in the state. The downtrodden are being oppressed and targeted systematically and the police is simply turning a deaf ear to the plea of harassed Dalits," Mayawati has been telling her party men.
Taking the cue from her, some of her main lieutenants have already started echoing her sentiments. BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya has already begun to attack the Akhikesh Yadav-led government on various issues.
"Crime and vandalism have been on the rise since the Samajwadi Party came to power. Criminals have become unbridled and the police has turned ineffective in the face of the growing might of politico-criminal nexus," alleged Maurya, who also has plans of staging street demonstrations to motivate the demoralised party rank and file.
