Mayavati, Mulayam: Target Brahmin

New Delhi, May 17: The arch foes are changing spots in the battle for Brahmins.

If Mayavati, who has been spewing venom at “Manuwadis”, has launched an intensive campaign to court the Brahmins, so has Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has till now been content with his Muslim-Yadav-Rajput base.

The reason behind the courtship is simple: Brahmins account for 10 to 20 per cent of the votes in as many as 40 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party and Mayavati’s Bahujan Samaj Party have both organised a series of meetings and “Brahmin sammelans” to lure them into their fold. Many more are in the pipeline.

Last week, the Mulayam Singh government declared a public holiday on May 11 to mark Parashuram Jayanti, or the birthday of the legendary Brahmin who destroyed Kshatriyas, the warrior class.

The Samajwadi Party organised half-a-dozen Brahmin meetings in districts where they have a sizeable presence. Party leaders even got local Brahmin leaders to felicitate their chief.

Former minister Amarmani Tripathy and Shyam Narain Tiwari, a former legislator, both Brahmins, are canvassing support from their caste brethren for the chief minister.

Mayavati is not sitting idle either.

A day before the state government declared a public holiday on May 11, the BSP announced plans for a grand rally of Brahmins in Lucknow on June 9.

The BSP chief has two Mishras ? Rajya Sabha MP and former advocate general Satish Chandra Mishra and Brijesh Mishra, a state-level leader ? travelling around to mobilise people from their caste for the Brahmin sammelans organised by the party.

For the first time, the party has opened its booth committees, so long an exclusive Dalit preserve, to all castes.

The idea is to evolve a social coalition at the grassroots level and emerge a strong, viable national party to displace the Congress and the BJP.

The BSP chief had last week convened a meeting of all state presidents in Delhi to take stock of the social and political situation at the grassroots and discuss the fallout of her recent interrogation by the CBI in an assets case. BSP sources claimed that Brahmins are leaning towards the party in a big way and that is why the “unnerved” Congress, which is trying to reverse its fortunes in the heartland, “set the CBI against Mayavati”.

Although Mayavati dubbed the CBI “Manuwadi”, she has of late not attacked her pet hate ? casteist elements ? as she used to. Her party’s slogan now is “from bahujan samaj to sarva samaj”.