UP bypolls: SC Mishra back in BSP list of star campaigners

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra is among the party’s star campaigners in the upcoming UP bypolls to nine assembly constituencies scheduled to be held on November 20.
On Tuesday, the BSP released the list of its 40 star campaigners that also includes party chief Mayawati, national coordinator Akash Anand, BSP state unit president Vishwanath Pal and other senior party leaders besides SC Mishra.
Mishra’s name did not figure in the party’s star campaigners’ list for Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypoll held in 2022 neither in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections held recently, leading to speculations that he had been sidelined from the campaigning after BSP managed to win only one seat (Rasda constituency) in the UP assembly polls of 2022.
Although he was among the BSP’s star campaigners in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, his activities were limited to the party office. The BSP has played the tested social engineering formula in the assembly bypolls to regain its lost ground in Uttar Pradesh.
It has fielded four upper caste, two OBC, two Muslim and one Dalit candidates in the assembly bypolls.
A BSP leader said, “The upper caste votes, particularly Brahmins, will be decisive in deciding the fate of the candidates in Katehri (Ambedkar Nagar), Majhawan (Mirzapur), Sisamau (Kanpur Nagar), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Ghaziabad Sadar assembly seats.”
Mishra, the Brahmin face of the BSP, will address public meetings in the Brahmin majority areas of the constituencies to mobilise voters to support the BSP in the bypolls.
The BSP has also fielded two Brahmin candidates Virendra Kumar Shukla from Sisamau and Deepak Tiwari from Majhawan. The support of the influential Brahmin community is likely to be crucial in both these seats.
Among other upper caste candidates, Jitendra Kumar Singh, a Rajput, has been fielded from Phulpur. Parmanand Garg, who belongs to Vaishya community, has been fielded from Ghaziabad.
The BSP has also released the list of the star campaigners for Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Mishra’s name, however, does not figure in the list of the star campaigners for both the states.
A BSP leader said, “Mishra enjoys influence over Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh. Rather than sending him to two states, the party has decided to organise his public meetings in Uttar Pradesh that is crucial for the party to make a comeback in the state politics.”