Lucknow: Ahead of the hotly contested Ghosi by-election in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for Wednesday, the latest announcement from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has sparked a fresh controversy. The BSP leader has directed party workers to abstain from voting or choose the NOTA (None of the Above) option in the Ghosi by-poll on September 5.
The state president of BSP, Vishwanath Pal, made it clear that his party is not involved in the Ghosi by-elections and hence advised abstaining from polling booths. He stated that as a matter of principle, BSP has decided not to contest the Ghosi by-election. Additionally, the party has also chosen not to support any of the candidates.
BSP voters may either stay at home or select NOTA to register their protest. He mentioned that the BJP has initiated a new practice in which opposition legislators are being asked to resign from the assembly. In protest of this trend, BSP has decided to boycott the Ghosi by-election.
Ghosi assembly segment has around 90,000 Dalit voters, with the majority traditionally supporting BSP. In the 2022 bi-polar elections, the BSP candidate in Ghosi received more than 50,000 votes. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party, currently in a direct contest for the Ghosi by-poll, are concerned about the impact of BSP’s decision to abstain from voting. They believe that the 90,000-plus Dalit voters in Ghosi could sway the election outcome. In the 2022 UP assembly poll, BSP’s Ghosi candidate, Wasim Iqbal, received 54,248 votes. However, in the 2017 assembly polls, the BSP candidate from Ghosi, Abbas Ansari, received 81,295 votes.
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The Ghosi by-election has turned into a display of strength for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the recently formed I.N.D.I.A. alliance of opposition parties. For the first time in a UP by-election, NDA and I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners are actively campaigning for their respective candidates. The Congress, Rashtriya Lok Dal, and Apna Dal (K) from I.N.D.I.A. have fully supported the Samajwadi candidate, while NDA alliance partners Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Apna Dal (S), and Nishad Party have been vigorously campaigning for the BJP.
The Ghosi by-election was necessitated when the SP legislator from this seat, Dara Singh Chauhan, resigned from the party and the assembly in July this year to join the BJP. Chauhan had been a cabinet minister in the previous Yogi Government but resigned a month before the 2022 assembly polls to join the BJP. In 2022, Dara Singh contested as the SP candidate from Ghosi and emerged victorious.
