As the BSP was reduced to just one seat in its home state of Uttar Pradesh at its all-time low, the sole winner was the sitting BSP MLA from the Rasra assembly seat of Ballia Uma Shankar Singh in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district. When asked about BSP’s only victory and fall, Uma Shankar said after counting that it is all a matter of review but it is worth noting that BSP got less seats in 2017 but its vote share 1.9 percent more than the SP. but it dipped much less than Samajwadi Party This time.
Uma Shankar Singh has been winning the seat from the last two elections against all odds for her party in both 2012 and 2017 and was the sitting BSP MLA from the seat.
This time he had a tough competition from the candidate of the Samajwadi Party’s alliance partner Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Part, Mahendra. While Uma Shankar got around 76,000 votes, Mahendra got around 70,000 votes. BJP Third place candidate Babban.
While many are wondering who is the sole winner of the BSP, in Rasra Uma Shankar embodies the image of a “Robin Hood” who gives free bees from his personal wealth and generously helps the marriages of the poor. His most popular free Bee Rasra over the past 5 years has been “free public” WiFi in an otherwise underdeveloped constituency. Otherwise a contractor, Singh had contested elections first in 2012 and again in 2017. This is his third win from the seat.
There is a belief in Rasra that even if he is an MLA of the opposition party, he can persuade the development work of his constituency and the local people attribute his victory to his “personal support base” in comparison to the party.
When asked about his victory, he attributed it to “karyakartas” and “Rasra ki Janata” assembly constituency.
However, he lamented that it was a close fight with a regional party candidate who had never visited the constituency in the past.
As for BSP losing in rest of the state and he being the lone winner, Singh said, “Pratyashi 403 they.. jaroor iski shamiksha humare rashtriya adhyaksha Mayawati kar rahi hongi.. Yeh jaroor Samiksha ka vishaya hai humara graph itna kam hua.. 2017 mein bhi hum seat kam paye they lekin humare SP se 1.9 per cent vote adhik tha, yeh sab samiksha ka vishaya hai” (There were 403 candidates.. While our national president Mayawati ji must be reviewing this.. It is certainly a matter or review that why our graph has come down so much.. In 2017 also we had got low number of seats but still our vote share was 1.9 per higher than Samajwadi Party)
He further said, “Agar party ki haar hui hai to use swikar kar raha hun.”