Chandigarh, December 25
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today launched the phase II of its “social engineering” formula in Punjab by inducting former state Governor Lieut-Gen BKN Chhibber (retd) besides a ‘brahman’ social worker and a ‘jat’ Sikh woman player into the party in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.

General Chhibber could be fielded in the elections. The party has announced candidates for nine seats till now and will announce the names for the remaining four seats on January 5 at a rally in Jalandhar. It will also formally launch its election campaign in the state on the same day.

BSP president Avtar Singh Karimpuri said the entry of General Chhibber as well as Punjab Brahman Sabha president Deepak Joshi and former baseball player Rajwinder Brar was part of the social engineering model instituted by the BSP President Mayawati.

The party has already announced people from myriad backgrounds as candidates for the nine Lok Sabha seats, including former Superintendent of Police Madanjeet Singh from Sangrur, former divisional forest officer Surjit Singh from Jalandhar and former district judge Gurnam Singh Sewak from Fatehgarh Sahib.

There is speculation that the party may field Chhibber from Amritsar as he has lived and studied in Amritsar after arriving there after Partition and is still a member of a few social organisations in the city.

Chhibber said he could have fought elections earlier also and that he had only joined the BSP due to the love and respect being accorded to him by the party.

The former Governor, however, went on to say that since he was closely associated with Punjab since 1987, he understood its politics and said the BSP could provide a credible alternative to the people of the state, who were fed up with the present political climate.

The BSP says its initiative to involve intellectuals from various backgrounds and castes was the right mix to provide a credible alternative to the Congress as well as the SAD-BJP alliance in the state.

Party general secretary Narender Kashyap said the party was determined to face the coming polls alone and there was no question of arriving at any pre-poll understanding with any other party.