Mayawati announced Ambedkar as the party’s nominee for upcoming Rajya Sabha elections

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Bhimrao Ambedkar filed his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections in Lucknow on Wednesday. He was accompanied by BSP Rajya Sabha member Satish Mishra and state BSP chief Ram Achal Rajbhar. 

After striking a barter deal with Samajwadi Party on Sunday, BSP chief Mayawati announced Ambedkar as the party’s nominee for upcoming Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday.

Later, Satish Mishra said tha the BSP candidate would sail through the election as he would get adequate votes to get elected. He said that the support extended to Samajwadi Party candidates for the two bypolls at Gorakhpur and Phulpur should not be linked with 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He said that the BSP extended its support to the SP candidates only for defeating BJP candidates.

Bhimrao Ambedkar, a native of Etawah, comes from the same Jatav community which Mayawati belongs to. Ambedkar’s name was finalised by the BSP chief Mayawati after a meeting with party MLAs in Lucknow on Tuesday evening.  

Ambedkar (52), won the Lakhna Assembly seat in Etawah in 2007, but has a dubious past. In 2010, he allegedly issued death threat to an Irrigation department Chief Engineer for not installing hand pumps in his constituency. The engineer got so terrified that he sent his resignation to the then CM, Mayawati. He was denied a ticket in 2012 but contested 2017 Assembly elections from Auraiyya and lost.

The selection of Ambedkar as candidate has put speculations about Mayawati or her younger brother Anand Kumar’s candidature for Rajya Sabha, to rest. BSP chief claimed that Ambedkar was recommended for his committed approach to party’s missionary movement.

Mayawati accused the media of spreading the name of Anand Kumar under BJP’s influence and reiterated that she had always been against nepotism and therefore none of her family members would become MP, MLA or ministers. “Anand Kumar looks after the executive work of the party and not its political affairs,” she claimed.

If elected with the support of SP as per the deal, Ambedkar would become the fourth Dalit MP from BSP in the Rajya Sabha. The other three are Ashok Siddharth, Veer Singh and Raja Ram. Mayawati had resigned from Rajya Sabha in July last year.

Out of 10 Rajya Sabha seats, BJP with 311 members and 13 from its allies would be able to send eight members to the Upper House, while the SP would manage only one with 47 seats and transfer the remaining extra votes to the BSP candidate. Congress with seven members may extend support to the BSP for taking its support in Madhya Pradesh.