After it failed to establish a presence in Haryana, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is now looking to expand in Jharkhand and increase its vote share in the two-phase Assembly elections this month. While the BSP has fielded contestants across Maharashtra and Jharkhand, its hopes rest on 15 seats in the latter bordering Bihar. These 15 constituencies have a high population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Dalits, the BSP’s core base.

While the Mayawati-led party tried to make inroads into Maharashtra and Jharkhand in the past, its track record has not been great. In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BSP contested 262 of 288 seats in Maharashtra but failed to win a single seat with a vote share of only 1%. In Jharkhand, the party lost all of the 66 of total 81 Assembly seats it contested and got a 1.89% vote share on average.

But with its cadre present in the 15 Jharkhand seats, the party believes it stands a chance this time to make a bigger impact. The 15 seats are Bishrampur, Garhwa, Hussainabad, Chhatarpur, Panki, Chatra, Barhi, Kodarma, Dhanwar, Jamua, Gandey, Madhupur, Deoghar, Poreyahat, and Godda. In 2019, the BJP won seven of these seats, while the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won three. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) won two seats, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and the Congress won a seat each. The BSP has fielded seven Scheduled Castes (SCs) candidates; five OBC nominees; two Muslims and one Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidate in the seats.

In Bishrampur, Jharkhand BSP president Rajesh Mehta will take on sitting BJP MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi. Mehta, an OBC leader, contested the seat in 2019 too, finishing second to Chandravanshi, who won by 8,000 votes. The BSP has fielded Ajay Kumar Choudhary in Garhwa, a seat where it managed 4.43% votes in 2019. In Hussainabad, where it got 17.62% of the votes, the party has fielded Kushwaha Shivpujan Mehta. But the BSP’s space as an OBC-Dalit party in Jharkhand is up for a challenge from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).

The ASP (Kanshi Ram) has fielded candidates in eight of the 15 constituencies, while the SP is contesting six of these. While the ASP (Kanshi Ram) will be looking to increase its hold on Dalit votes, the SP will be eying OBC votes. The RJD is also contesting six of these constituencies.

BSP’s Jharkhand and Maharashtra in-charge Ramji Gautam said the party was going solo in the states because it was “confident”. He added, “The BSP is contesting strongly in both the states without alliance with any party and has fielded candidates on all the seats. In several Jharkhand seats, there is a neck-and-neck fight. Our party organisation is working on the ground with enthusiasm.”