BSP supremo started the preparations right after the Lok Sabha elections in May 2009 since the BSP did not do well as per expectations. She asked the party leaders and the workers at the grass roots level to plunge into organisational activities for preparing the base for the elections to the assembly in 2012. Series of meetings were held since then and a ground was prepared by the BSP leaders at the constituency level.

Mayawati has already finalised the list of as many as 200 candidates and they have been told by the party leadership to start campaign in their respective constituencies. The remaining candidates names will be made ready by January 15, the birthday of the BSP supremo which is celebrated as a gala event every year by the BSP supporters and the dalits.

During last few months Mayawati has asked her party leaders to spread the word about the achievements of her government for minorities, dalits and backwards from village level to block and district level. In order to retain her vote bank in dalit community, chief minister Mayawati has taken the appointment of Mr PL Punia, her former secretary and Congress MP from Barabanki as chairman of National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission as a serious challenge.

Ever since Mr PL Punia took over as chairman he has been attacking Mayawati government for increase in atrocities on women and dalits during last three years and charged state government of being insensitive towards the serious issue. Mayawati not only attacked her former secretary Punia but also charged UPA government of being insensitive towards problems of dalits. She got a small booklet published which contained the work done by her government for the benefits for dalits during her regimes. She asked her party leaders to distribute the booklets at villages to counter the so-called ‘bogus propaganda’ of Punia.

Mayawati government is so upset with Mr PL Punia that she changed the protocol rules for chairman of constitutional institutions to deprive Punia of any facility in the state. Mayawati is also concentrating on more then 80 seats categorised as reserved seats having dominance of dalit population. During last Lok Sabha polls, BSP could only win two Lok Sabha seats from reserved category which gave the impression that there was shift in dalit votes from BSP.

Now she has brought dalits experts from other states to work with scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population and she had made her close trusted lieutenant and cabinet minister Nasimuddin Siddqui in charge of the project.

After Bihar polls results, she has realised that people would vote for development work and accordingly, she is giving big thrust on such programmes.

She also got her party’s Brahmin face Satish Mishra involved in government work. She held the review meeting and announced that Mishra would look into the unfinished government projects and ensure that they were completed before the elections were announced.

Mayawati also asked Mishra to re-organise Brahmin Bhaichara Samiti from state capital to village level. Similar bhaichara samitis to coordinate between dalits and other castes including Muslims have also been revived.

Regarding preparations of lists, the recommendations of coordinators and winnability of particular applicants were considered. Significantly enough Mayawati had announced that she would not consider the close relatives of party leaders for assembly tickets. (IPA Service)