Former BSP state president, MP, MLAs join Congress

Former state president of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Pradeep Ahirwar along with several of the party’s senior leaders including former MP and MLAs on March 10 joined the Congress party at the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) headquarters.

Among those who quit BSP and joined the Congress were former MP Rewa Devraj Singh, former MLAs Satyaprakash Jatav, Babulal Pehalwan, Ravindra Kumar Patel, Manju Saraf, Komal Prasad, Dr Vinod Rai and Ramsevak Damle.

Former Rewa district chief of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Devdutt Soni and Samajwadi Party’s Bajaj Chouhan also joined the Congress along with the BSP leaders.

Welcoming them, Chief minister Kamal Nath said it was the Congress government which had implemented reservation for SCs/STs and now his government has raised quota for the OBCs to 27 per cent. He said that those who wished to change the Constitution drafted by Dr B R Ambedkar could do no good to the downtrodden section of the society.

“Everyone knows that Congress has a history of working for dalits and also know those who are claiming themselves messiah of dalits. In all the BJP ruled states incidents of atrocities against dalits have become rampant,” said Nath.

Ahirwar said he decided to join the Congress because of Kamal Nath’s progressive thinking and impressive work of his government in the last 80 days. He said he also realized that it is only the Congress which could take on the BJP in the upcoming election and it must be strengthened. Besides, he said, BSP had gone miles away from the principles on which Kanshi Ram had founded the party.

Ahirwar alleged that party president Mayawati doesn’t give any importance to any of the party office-bearers of Madhya Pradesh. She operates through and relies only on state in-charge leader sent from Uttar Pradesh. “There is no democracy in the party,” he added.

Former MP of Rewa Devraj Singh said, “Situation in MP has come to a sorry state. The party’s base is dwindling due to bad decisions of the party president Mayawati based on wrong feedback of the state in-charge leaders from time to time. I was only party MP from Madhya Pradesh from 2009 to 2014 but even I couldn’t talk to her. Such is the state of dictatorship in the party.”

BSP state president Dwarika Prasad Chaudhry, however, dismissed BSP leader’s move as insignificant saying that “those who have joined the Congress today had already been expelled from the BSP for anti-party activities”.

The BSP supports the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. BSP’s Ramji Gautam in-charge of Madhya Pradesh affairs said, “We are hardly concerned which party they join. Since, they are not in BSP they are free to join any party. It will not affect the party’s poll prospects in Lok Sabha elections.”

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BSP couldn’t win any seat from MP. Earlier in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, BSP had one MP from Madhya Pradesh. It wields influence mainly in Gwalior-Chambal, Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions.

Mayawati had refused to join hands with Congress for a pre-poll alliance in the last assembly elections. Later, BSP entered into a pre-poll alliance with Samajvadi Party. Ahead of Lok Sabha election too SP and BSP have entered into a pre-poll alliance in Madhya Pradesh. SP will contest on three seats while BSP will field its candidates on remaining 26 seats.