By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun/Haridwar, 26 Mar: Political leaders in Uttarakhand are currently switching parties like clothes. In a surprise move, the BSP candidate from Haridwar constituency, Bhavana Pandey, has quit the party to join the BJP. The BSP, on the other hand, has now declared former MLA Hazrat Maulana Jamil Ahmed Qasmi as its new candidate from the seat. Qasmi belongs to district Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and had been elected MLA from Meerapur assembly seat from there.
It may be recalled that Bhavana Pandey, who had during the last assembly elections (2022) in Uttarakhand, launched her own party had only four days ago (22 March) joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and was declared the candidate from Haridwar on the same day.
The party ticket to Pandey had enraged some BSP leaders in the district, some of whom had quit the party in protest and joined the BJP. It is worth recalling that Pandey had yesterday called on BJP candidate from Haridwar and former Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. This morning she announced her decision to quit the party and join the BJP instead.
Meanwhile, reacting to this development, BSP state president Chaudhary Sheeshpal claimed that Bhavana Pandey was not in touch with party leaders after joining the BSP. He also conceded that Pandey had not been picking up phone calls made to her by them. He stated that the BSP has no dearth of capable leaders and that anyone leaving the party does not impact the party’s fortunes negatively since its mass base remains unaffected by such developments.
It remains to be seen what triggered Bhavana Pandey to quit the party she had joined only four days ago. Some sources claim that she had been cold shouldered by the party workers and leaders in the state after her joining, as she had secured her ticket from Haridwar directly from the BSP High Command, dashing the aspirations of many local leaders. It was also claimed by many in the BSP that, being a Brahmin, she would not have been able to attract Muslim votes which have a significant number on this seat. However, there are others who claimed that, being a Pahari, she could have managed to dent the Pahari votebank of the BJP. The real reasons behind the latest development of Bhavana Pandey quitting the BSP and then the BSP declaring a new candidate from Haridwar are still not known. It also remains to be seen if a Muslim candidate on this seat is able to dent the Muslim vote bank of the Congress in Haridwar. In such a scenario, he might end up helping the BJP candidate, Trivendra Singh Rawat. One factor against Qasmi is that he is already being declared an outsider and a parachute candidate by the Congress.
