BSP

Tack change

40mayawati

The 83rd birthday of Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram on March 15 must have been a reflective one for his protege, Mayawati, as she stared at the worst performance of the party—the BSP won only 19 seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Another blow awaits her next April when her Rajya Sabha term would end. With her party’s current strength in the UP assembly, she cannot get a renomination, unless the Congress and the Samajwadi Party support her. But Akhilesh Yadav, too, may seek refuge in the Upper House next year, owing to his Samajwadi Party’s dismal performance. Mayawati now has six MPs in the Rajya Sabha, and none in the Lok Sabha.

Mayawati, 61, had jealously guarded her dalit vote bank. She refused overtures from the Congress for an alliance, fearing the Congress would benefit more as dalits had been supportive of the grand old party in the past. But she had begun to reinvent, too—making the party’s debut on social media and interacting with followers. But it was too little, too late.

On the brighter side, the BSP raised its vote share from 19.6 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, when even the dalits had sided with the BJP, to 22.2 per cent this assembly election—the second highest vote share after the BJP. That, however, didn’t translate into seats. On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party, with a vote share of 21.8 per cent, won 47 seats. Also, the BSP’s performance dipped in comparison to the 2012 assembly polls when it polled 25.91 per cent of the total votes.

Mayawati had sought to carve a winning combination focusing on Muslim support along with her traditional dalit base. But it seems that Muslims may have sided mostly with Akhilesh, given his youthful appeal. Besides, senior leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, who represented her social engineering, had deserted her for the BJP a few months before the elections. She also lost the support of non-Jatav dalits, who felt she was more loyal to her caste and were happily lured by the BJP and the Samajwadi Party.

Staring at a political oblivion, Mayawati declared to fight back after visiting Kanshi Ram’s statue on his birthday. As soon as the election results were out on March 11, she had alleged that the electronic voting machines had been tampered with, a claim seconded by the Aam Aadmi Party. “Our party has decided to approach the court against the EVM fraud. We would also launch an agitation in Uttar Pradesh to expose it. The BSP will observe a ‘black day’ at all district headquarters in the state on the 11th of every month. The first demonstration will be on April 11,” she said.

But to stay relevant, such rallies alone won’t do. Mayawati will have to forge alliances, just as her contemporaries like Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu did when they were up against a strong adversary. Though she is new to social media, it is time for her to send out friend requests.

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