Using Jat and Muslim, BSP plans to derail BJP-RLD, SP-Congress

The Bahujan Samaj Party is planning to field a number of prominent Jat and Muslim leaders in the constituencies where these two communities are in strength. It is a move aimed at denting the ‘Jat’ vote-bank of the BJP-RLD and the Muslim vote bank of the SP-Congress alliances. BSP has fielded Bijendra Singh from Bijnor, who belongs to the Jat community and joined the BSP a few days back after resigning from the post of the national general secretary of Lok Dal. Bijnor is considered the traditional stronghold of the BSP. The BSP also plans to field strong Muslim candidates on LS seats where the community plays a decisive role in deciding the outcome of the polls. BSP has fielded Dr Mujahid Hussain from Amroha Lok Sabha seat, Irfan Saifi from Moradabad , Anish Ahmed Khan aka Phool Babu from Pilibhit and Majid Ali from Saharanpur. All these four seats are in West Uttar Pradesh’s Rohilkhand region, where Muslims constitute 20%-40% of the population. While the Muslim BSP nominees could pose serious problems for the SP-Congress alliance, the party’s Jat candidates could pose similar problems to the BJP-RLD combine also.