18 Muslims, 14 OBCs, 10 Brahmins — BSP's candidate selection could hurt INDIA bloc more than NDA

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Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded several upper-caste and Muslim candidates in the Lok Sabha elections, looking at the winnability factor, but its social engineering, if political experts are tobe believed, might hurt the INDIA bloc more than the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)...

While the Mayawati-led BSPs Muslim candidates have the potential to harm the prospects of their INDIA bloc counterparts, the party this time has also fielded a significant number of upper-caste (UC) candidates, who might take away a few votes of the NDA candidates...

However, political experts said that several of its UC candidates werenon-entities,which, along with theBSPs declining fortunes, signals that the party may not make any significant dent in the BJP vote bank, which has been loyal in past elections...

While it is true that its Muslim candidates may dent the vote share of INDIA alliance candidates, it (BSP) has fielded upper-caste candidates like Thakurs in west UP seats, sensing the anger within the community towards the BJP,Shashikant Pandey,head of the political science department at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, told ThePrint...

About theBSPs Brahmin candidates, Beg said the Brahmin voters have traditionally been voting for the BJP in past elections, and it is unlikely that there will be a shift in their voting pattern, but their ability to attract voters counts...

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