Lucknow, Aug 7: As many as 16 outfits of Dalits, Muslims and OBCs, led by former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui, met in Delhi to chalk out strategy for Mayawati’s ouster. Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Mayawati’s former lieutenant who floated his new political party after being thrown out of BSP, held a daylong meeting with these 16 outfits to make a plan to dent Mayawati’s core ‘Bahujan’ vote. Siddiqui, at one time the closest confidante of Mayawati, was expelled from the BSP after the party suffered a crushing defeat in the UP Assembly elections.
Since Mayawati, who resigned from Rajya Sabha last month saying she was not being allowed to speak on atrocities against Dalits, sacked Naseemuddin Siddiqui from the BSP, there has been speculation about his next move. Siddiqui has floated his new political party – Rashtriya Bahaman Morcha -, but sources close to the leader said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in touch with him and some other BSP leaders, who want to oust Mayawati.
“Sixteen political and non-political outfits from several states gathered today. The Committee will soon hold another meeting and we will form a joint front of Sarv Samaj and contest elections,” Naseemuddin Siddiqui told the Indian Express after the meeting which was held at Delhi’s Constitution Club. Among the outfits present in Sunday’s meeting were the Indian National League, Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan Sangharsh Party, film actor Rajpal Yadav’s Sarv Sambhav Party, the Bahaman Mukti Morcha, and a sister organisation of the All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees’ Federation, or BAMCEF.
