MYSURU: Six percent was the target that the Bahujan Samaj Party set for itself in the recently concluded Parliamentary polls. Six per cent of the vote share would have earned it the tag of a national party. But it failed.
However, in Karnataka, the party claims to have performed well, improving its vote share from 0.86 per cent to 1.16 per cent. But nationally, its vote shares reduced from 4.14 per cent in 2014 to 3.63 per cent in 2019. In 2018, the party joined the Congress-JDS coalition in the state with its lone MLA, elected from Kollegal, managing to get a cabinet post. However, this friendship was short lived as the Minister eventually quit the coalition. The party’s decision to contest all 28 seats in the LS polls, according to sources, was in order to grab as many votes as they could. Former Minister and BSP MLA N Mahesh said that the situation changed once BJP announced V Srinivasa Prasad as the candidate for the Chamarajanagar constituency.
“We sensed trouble during the campaign as many Dalits and BSP supporters admitted that they support Srinivasa Prasad,” he said, pointing out that it was a vote for the candidate, not for the party. “We will redraw our political strategy and win back the support,” he said. Prasad also did not rule out aligning with a political party in the next six months.