Both the Shiv Sena and the MNS who have for some time maintained studied silence on the matter are bound to react sharply to her demand to provide free houses to the migrants from Uttar Pradesh.
The BSP which reckons Congress as the number one enemy is gearing up for the crucial BMC elections in Mumbai. It also wants to capture the Dalit space after the RPI has joined hands with the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in state turf.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Sunday signaled her political mission to make deeper inroads in Maharashtra by stoking the most sensitive migrant plank. Both the Shiv Sena and the MNS who have for some time maintained studied silence on the matter are bound to react sharply to her demand to provide free houses to the migrants from Uttar Pradesh and rest of North India. Mayawati’s two-day visit was to declare her political mission to expand the organisation in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Although assembly elections are way ahead in 2014, the local bodies polls in state will begin from December 2011. The big battle in Mumbai during the BMC polls will have the Congress, BJP, Sena, MNS and the Samajwadi Party in the contest. Apart from fighting against Congress the BSP is also making attempts to get Dalit support following realignment of forced with Ramdas Athavale of RPI(A) joining Sena-BJP grand alliance.
The BSP is here to contest all the elections alone on its own steam in Maharashtra,” she said. Thus signaling that she was willing to fight the Congress in Maharashtra and the BJP in Gujarat. Both the mainstream parties have scaled their attack against her government in UP.
Notwithstanding, heat over administrative failure over the rape cases in her home state UP, the chief minister turned to politics focussed on party expansion plans beginning in Mumbai. At a public rally held at Goregaon she touched upon the sensitive migrant plank demanding Maharashtra government cannot overlook its commitment to providing free house and employment to people from North India. Adding, “You cannot seek electoral support of the migrants and turn blind eye to their basic needs in Mumbai.” She went further to state, “ If the government fails then we will do the need full.” Clearly, trying to capture the migrants who constitute almost 35-40% of the electoral vote bank.
Interestingly, migrants also constitute the mainstay vote bank of the Congress. The visit of “Behenji” in Mumbai is perceived as an attempt to field the party in the crucial BMC elections scheduled in early 2012. Although in 2009 assembly elections the BSP failed to make remarkable march in state turf, it believes it would require a sustained effort to mobilise mass support across the sections. A party activist said, “You cannot expect Dalits to suddenly switch loyalty from RPI to BSP. It will have to be a gradual step.” In a tit for tat against the Congress, BSP chief recounted series of wrong policies pursued by the ruling party in centre and state for the last 50 years.
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