BSP was not able to win a single seat in the recently held Lok Sabha election, with its core Dalit votes shifting to other parties. Now BSP supremo Mayawati is trying out new strategies so asto go back to the basics and redraw the party's bahujan plans. She has already demanded a caste census from the Central Government. However, the challenge before the party is not only to win back Brahmin, Muslim, and non-Yadav backward class votes, a strategy that propelled it to power in 2007, but to also win back the nearly 21 per cent Dalit vote, 12 per cent of this being Jatav, which is Mayawati's caste. According to party functionaries, besides raising the issue of the Supreme Court's quota judgment, the BSP has also decided to focus on caste equations in party appointments. A change is already being seen as more than half of the responsibilities in some district units in Uttar Pradesh have been reassigned to Dalit and most backward community leaders. The same is set to be implemented in other districts and state units too. (IPA Service)
