Book-Keeper바카라�s Miscalculation

Kitaab and hisaab바카라�books and accounts바카라�are the words resonating in Uttar Pradesh바카라�s politics ever since BSP supremo Mayawati threw longtime loyalist Naseemuddin Siddiqui out for 바카라�anti-party바카라� activities. Last week, Siddiqui and his son Afzal were sacked, but they exited kicking and screaming rather than fading out. Since then, Siddiqui senior has been drawing great attention to himself and Mayawati by talking incessantly about alleged financial shenanigans within the Bahujan Samaj Party.

In the recent UP assembly elections, the BSP gave 103 tickets to Muslim cand­idates, but their showing was rem­arkably poor as the party바카라�s overall tally sank to its lowest ever: 19 seats. Now, as the 1984-founded party appeared to be rethi­nking that strategy, Siddiqui has presen­ted 바카라�evidence바카라� of wrongdoing within the BSP and alleged that there is no room for Muslims in the BSP either.

The evidence Siddiqui presented on the first charge of financial impropriety is, oddly, a series of his own taped conversations with Mayawati. These deal purportedly with payments due to the BSP from several western UP candidates who got tickets in the latest polls. These are referred to as 바카라�membership바카라� payme­nts, which are apparently due when these tapes were made. Mayawati says the recordings have been edited to reflect poorly on her바카라�she is apparently heard demanding hisaab or accounts, for the kitaab (membership books) the party gives to all members as a convention.

The conversations offer a juicy tidbit of what has for long been largely rumoured about Mayawati바카라�s party. The go-between for these unpaid dues, it seems clear, is Siddiqui senior himself. But in a twist, he paraded in public those very candidates from western UP this week, and they have supported his claims and strongly denied that they owe any money.

Siddiqui says he is not trying to trap or blackmail Mayawati. 바카라�I will make more tapes public only if she makes any further charge against me,바카라� he adds. 바카라�If necessary, I will release recordings of calls I got from the BSP바카라�s top leaders in Delhi threatening me after my exit.바카라� His plan of action is to wait a day or two and, if 바카라�nothing happens바카라�, hold a meeting with 50-odd ex-members and candidates. Alre­ady gaining the hues of a splinter group, the 바카라�morcha바카라� will determine whether to join another party or float a new one. 바카라�Hundreds are leaving the party every day,바카라� Siddiqui claims. 바카라�The party is finished.바카라� He alleges to possess documents relating to Mayawati바카라�s property transactions. 바카라�I haven바카라�t given them to anybody. I can바카라�only if she says anything more about me.바카라�

Whatever be the truth, some BSP leaders are taking note of the manner in which the recordings have exposed the party바카라�s inner workings. 바카라�Naseemuddin,바카라� according to a former BSP legislator from western UP who remains a party loyalist, 바카라�is bringing up so-called threats to his life and apparent danger to himself to wrest a security reti­nue from the UP government. Why else would he meet the chief minister (Yogi Adityanath)? He will offer to malign beh­enji in exchange.바카라� Also, 바카라�Siddiqui will spread rumours to finish the party바카라�. His allegations bear some truth and some falsehood, this leader says, conceding that 바카라�strong public perception about corruption in the BSP바카라� led to his party faring badly in the 2017 ass­embly elections.

The BJP, going by the recent election outcome, has a strong grasp over the state바카라�s electorate, and many believe elections 2019 will be a watershed for the BSP as well as Mayawati. 바카라�The upper castes, backwards and most backward make up around 60 per cent of the electorate. They all strongly back Modi,바카라� says the BSP leader from western UP.

Siddiqui himself may have gained little political mileage, but he has tried to bolster his erstwhile party바카라�s public image as an outfit that condones shady practices. 바카라�Law and order and corruption are very big issues in UP now, other than caste and religion,바카라� says this leader. 바카라�If the Yogi government takes on crime and corruption successfully, then nothing will shake Modi바카라�s hold over UP in 2019.바카라�

Despite these worrying lines, other BSP leaders point out that there have been many notable exits from BSP. And not just since last year, when prominent OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya left the party. He is now a minister in the UP government. 바카라�My father joined the BSP a full year before Kanshiram formally founded it,바카라� says Afzal. 바카라�We would never have left had the party not tried to repeatedly extort from us.바카라� Siddiqui himself became one of Mayawati바카라�s closest confidants in UP바카라�s post-Babri politics and was her second-in-command. Of late, even Afzal was projected as among the party바카라�s prominent Muslim faces.

바카라�Who didn바카라�t have such experiences in the BSP as we did?바카라� Afzal complains. 바카라�To meet Mayawati you have to leave your watch, phone, even shoes outside바카라�but nobody stops big bundles of currency notes. The government should, on its own accord, probe this,바카라� he says. Afzal also claims the BSP is, along with the Muslim candidates who lost these polls, losing zonal coordinators and in-charges.

Former Hussainganj legislator Mohd Asif, too, has quit the party along with his longtime associate and friend, Afzal. 바카라�It required the release of these tapes for the public to believe what goes on inside the BSP. Now people know.바카라� Asif says it wasn바카라�t out of loyalty towards the Siddiquis that he quit the BSP. 바카라�There are two things always being used by the party: one is membership and the other is kitabein (books). Paying for election after election바카라�be it in Bihar, Punjab, Raja­sthan바카라�was a sheer and total loss I suffe­red for five years.바카라�

Siddiqui has spent 34 years in the BSP, his son around five. Yet, they find great fault in the party they ingloriously left, points out a BSP leader. 바카라�These are silly and baseless allegations. Mayawati has only asked for party membership money that he was not giving,바카라� he says. 바카라�Which party member has the power to keep this money at his home?바카라�

In the 2017 assembly polls, the BSP바카라�s traditional Jatav vote base went up to 23 per cent from 19 per cent in 2014. 바카라�These are hard facts. Others come and go, floating voters don바카라�t come to us, Muslims voted for us less than we expected. Nothing has changed바카라�our base is intact, unaffec­ted by all this,바카라� says Sudheendra Bhadoria, Rajya Sabha MP and BSP leader. 바카라�Such exits are not new for BSP. People join us thinking of our voter base. If their ambitions aren바카라�t fulfilled they leave.바카라�

Of course, it is much more complex. This time, Muslims of UP voted for the Samajwadi Party in numbers, and for the BSP too, but fewer. However, the Hindus did not rally behind wherever the Muslims went. Here, too, the Siddiquis allege, Mayawati has not shown real interest. 바카라�She is not interested in ideology, politics or Muslim-Dalit alliance any longer,바카라� says the senior. 바카라�Muslims and Dalits can바카라�t align if she abuses Muslims.바카라�

Rasheed Masood, a longtime Congress leader who joined the BSP this month, says this isn바카라�t so. 바카라�There바카라�s a strong chance of this alliance even in the future,바카라� he says. 바카라�Muslims have realised that if the BJP has to be defeated, there바카라�s no route but the BSP. Many Hindus have also real­ised just voting for a Muslim candidate cannot get a 바카라�secular바카라� party into power.바카라� As for the corruption charges, he feels, they are too easy to level. 바카라�If Siddiqui had proof he would have shown it. Such a person always makes his strongest argument first바카라�he did no such thing.바카라�