Ram Vilas Paswan

Patna, Jan. 9: Lok Janshakti Party’s decision to go alone in Uttar Pradesh elections is, apparently, aimed at cutting into the Dalit votebank of Bahujan Samaj Party and helping the Congress.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who has already announced a list of 288 candidates, said: “The party will announce the names of the remaining candidates soon. We will fight alone in all states except Bihar.” He also expressed his desire to tie up with the Congress again. “We desire to tie up with the Congress, the RJD and the Left to dislodge the Nitish government in Bihar.”

About his strategy for UP polls, in which his party has participated earlier too without much success, he said, “Mayawati has hurt the Dalits. The LJP will fight for the cause of the Dalits suffering under BSP’s corrupt regime.”

Political circles here are abuzz with the conjecture that Paswan has entered the neighbouring state’s poll fray in a big way at the behest of the Congress. “It is known to all that the LJP will not win any seat in UP. But it might influence the poll outcome in close contests by cutting marginally into the Dalit votebank,” hoped a senior Congress leader.

Paswan’s party may prove to be a “spoiler” for BSP candidates locked in close contests in eastern and central Uttar Pradesh and thus, help the Congress in an indirect manner.

The calculations are not wholly awry as Mayawati’s party too has not won many seats in Bihar in the past but has ruined victory chances of the RJD, the LJP and even the JD(U) in the past elections.

The BSP fielded Saleem Parvez against RJD boss Lalu Prasad on Saran Lok Sabha seat in 2009. Saleem failed to win the polls but created difficult situation for Lalu by pocketing around 15,000 votes. “The votes cast in Saleem’s favour naturally came from to Muslims and a section of Dalits who otherwise would have voted for Lalu Prasad,” said an RJD leader, adding, “Lalu ji won Saran by about 50,000 votes. But the margin of the victory might have been bigger had Saleem not been in the race.”

The BSP fielded its candidates on almost all the seats that the LJP contested in 2010 Assembly elections in Bihar. The LJP suffered the biggest humiliation in 2010 in which the BSP, apart from other factors, worked to damage the party’s prospects.

Now Paswan, apparently, wishes to pay Mayawati in the same coin. And he is believed to have got the backing — financial and logistical — from the Congress which is working hard to resurrect itself in the neighbouring state.