POWER POLICY-Beating about the Bush

stronghold among the dalits of UP, gave only 86 tickets of its 299 tickets to scheduled caste candidates. There were 102 OBC, 53 Muslim, 12 brahmin and 25 thakur candidates fighting on BSP tickets. The SP the champion of OBC interests, put up 47 Muslims, 36 thakurs, 18 brahmins and 6 banias as candidates. Yet, despite this conscious reorientation in scat distribution by the main contenders, none of them managed to drastically improve their performance. In the recent Lok Sabha elections the BJP had secured a majority in 236 of the assembly segments. But in the assembly polls it could garner only 174 seats. The BSP maintained its 67 seats, while the SP by winning 110 seals improved upon its earlier position by one seat. The Congress, which stuck to its upper caste base, marginally improved its tally. The party had given a majority of its 126 tickets to brahmins and rajputs and won 33 seats compared to 29 earlier.