With an eye on the Centre,the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is focusing to make its strategy of 'social engineering' work in the Lok Sabha elections given the dividend it got from the formula during the 2007 RPT 2007 polls in Uttar Pradesh. "Of the total 543 Loksabha seats in the country 120 are reserved including 79 for SC candidates,which comprises our traditional dalit vote bank. Of these 79,17 seats are in the Uttar Pradesh alone. Besides others,the party is focusing on these seats spread across the country. We feel that these seats could be won if social engineering formula works",a senior party leader said. In 2004 Lok sabha polls,BSP won only five - Misrikh,Akbarpur,Barabanki,Basti and Robertsganj - out of 17 reserved parliamentary seats in the state and was placed second in 11 constituencies and came third in only one place. "Keeping this in mind,the party feels that it could do better in this election if its social engineering formula worked to its favour",he said. The party feels that division of dalit votes on reserved seats gave it set backs in previous elections. According to the BSP leader the upper caste and people of backward communities turned the tide on BSP candidates in 2004 and voted for parties like Congress,BJP and even Samajwadi Party. "But this time the mood is upbeat with Mayawati at helm of affairs in the state",he said.
