The head of the BSP booth committee in Ranipur village under Katehari, Ramsanehi Ram, has hit a wall trying to ensure the Nishad vote stays with the party. This is despite Chief Minister Mayawati accommodating three of Ambedkar Nagar’s five party MLAs as ministers. A fourth is a powerful coordinator in the party organisation. Mayawati has also represented the Ambedkar Nagar seat (then called Akbarpur) in the Lok Sabha in the past.

Old BSP warhorse and Fisheries Minister Dharamraj Nishad, who has continuously represented Katehari in the Assembly since 1996, winning largely due to the strong Dalit-Nishad combination, has been shifted this time to Jaunpur’s Shahganj seat. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma, the sitting MLA from Ambedkar Nagar’s Tanda seat, is now the BSP nominee for Katehari.

There are few takers for BSP leader Ramsanehi’s claim that Mayawati has shifted Dharamraj Nishad to Shahganj as punishment for “non-performance”. The party perhaps believes Verma has a good chance of winning from Katehari given the number of Kurmi-dominated villages of his previous seat Tanda that are now part of this constituency. However, with the Nishads turning against it and with the SP fielding a member of the community, Shankh Lal Manjhi (a former MP from erstwhile Akbarpur), from Katehari, the BSP is worried.

Ranipur’s Nishad voters accuse that under the Mayawati regime, benefits of government schemes like the Indira Awas Yojana and Mukhya Mantri Mahamaya Garib Arthik Madad Yojana, as well as the old age pension scheme, have been cornered by the Dalits. “Inko mil gaya, main rah gayi (She got it, I am still in the queue),” remarked Phula Devi (Nishad) pointing towards a fellow villager from the Dalit community.

Ramsanehi’s defence of this is ludicrous to the 550-odd voters of Ranipur. None of the 32 villagers who had given him application could get money for constructing houses under the Indira Awas Yojana, he says.

Many youths have moved out in search of jobs, such as Harikesh, who works in Ludhiana. “I have brought money to construct my house,” he said.

Another caste calculation that may not work for the BSP is the decision to field Sanjay Rajbhar in place of his father and Transport Minister Ramachal Rajbhar, a four-time MLA, from Akbarpur. “He (Sanjay) might not be in a position to get Dalit votes transferred to him,” said a BSP leader.

What the BSP seems to be counting on is the Dalit-Brahmin combination, that worked for it last time. Verma’s election office, located on a sprawling premises on the Faizabad-Ambedkar Nagar road, displays prominently pictures of the party’s two Brahmin faces — Power Minister Ramveer Upadhayay and Urban Development Minister Nakul Dubey.

“The CM tasked both the ministers to develop the party’s strong support base in this area about a year back. Dubey was a frequent visitor to Ambedkar Nagar till very recently,” a BSP worker in Verma’s election office said. The Brahmin vote can prove crucial. In the 2007 assembly elections, the SP’s Jaishankar Pandey had lost to Dharamraj Nishad by a margin of only about 300 votes.

“Chances are that Brahmins might back Verma in absence of any Brahmin candidate from this seat,” said a Verma supporter.

From neighbouring Jalalpur seat in the same Ambedkar Nagar district, the BSP has fielded MP Rakesh Pandey’s son Ritesh. Trying to preserve its Dalit-Brahmin combination, it denied ticket to sitting MLA Sher Bahadur, who is now in the fray from Jalalpur as the SP nominee.

A good number of the BSP’s Brahmin Bhaichara Committee leaders are at work to help Verma and Pandey.

In two other seats in the district too, the BSP is facing rebel candidates. From Allapur seat (reserved), it has fielded its powerful coordinator Tribhuvan Dutta. Dutta’s present seat Jahangirganj does not exist after delimitation. The Congress has pitted old BSP veteran and former MLA Jairam Vimal against him.