BSP set to lose status as national party

LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), led by Mayawati, is all set to lose its status as a national party after it failed to win the two seats the party needed to hold on to this status. BSP ended up winning one seat in Haryana and none in Maharashtra.
The election commission will now take a formal decision on this. The party had contested on all 90 seats of Harayana and 260 seats in Maharashra.BSP candidate Tek Chand Sharma won from Prithla in Harayna, defeating Nainpal Rawat of BJP by a margin of 1,179 votes.
Winning at least two seats was crucial for BSP to save its national status, months after it got decimated in the Lok Sabha elections where it failed to win any seat.
Soon after the Lok Sabha polls, the EC had sought an explanation from BSP chief Mayawati as to why her party’s national status should not be cancelled. But the party had managed to buy some time citing Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections.
Losing the national status would deprive BSP of some benefits given by the EC like contesting elections on a common symbol, using All India Radio and Doordarshan for election campaign broadcast and free copies of electoral rolls.
Even BSP’s lone sitting MLA from Jagadhari, Akram Khan, who was also the deputy speaker in Haryana assembly, lost. The BSP managed to bag barely 4.4 per cent vote share in Haryana, suggesting that Mayawati's core vote base, dalits, once again parted ways with her.
BSP's biggest bet, Arvind Sharma, who was also projected as a CM candidate, lost from Julana and Yamunanagar.
Mayawati had played the Brahmin card in Haryana by projecting Arvind Sharma. She not only campaigned herself but also pumped in a battery of her Brahmin leaders, including her close aide and Rajya Sabha MPs Satish Chandra Mishra and Brajesh Pathak to prepare ground for the BSP. Mayawati had raised the pitch for non-Jat voters saying that Haryana politics were completely dominated by Jats.
BSP's did badly in Maharashtra where Mayawati had addressed more than half a dozen rallies. The party failed to open its account and could barely garner 2.2% votes. Mayawati was initially approached by NCP's Sharad Pawar for an alliance. But she shrugged it off and chose to contest the Maharashtra polls alone.