Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati kicked off her party’s campaign for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections with a large rally in Agra on Wednesday, ending her puzzling absence from the campaign trail.
Mayawati’s party rose to prominence through the painstaking ground-level efforts of thousands of workers from marginalised castes under the leadership of her mentor and BSP founder, Kanshi Ram. Along with the Samajwadi Party (SP), it represented the churn in India’s heartland during the Mandal moment, sparked by
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati kicked off her party’s campaign for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections with a large rally in Agra on Wednesday, ending her puzzling absence from the campaign trail.
Mayawati’s party rose to prominence through the painstaking ground-level efforts of thousands of workers from marginalised castes under the leadership of her mentor and BSP founder, Kanshi Ram. Along with the Samajwadi Party (SP), it represented the churn in India’s heartland during the Mandal moment, sparked by the aspirations of groups that were forcibly kept deprived by dominant communities with a monopoly on power. That she was the country’s first Dalit woman chief minister and her party represented the interests of the most downtrodden communities made the history of her political journey remarkable.
Her political future, however, remains uncertain. Mayawati’s party has lost four straight elections – two assembly polls in 2012 and 2017, and two general elections in 2014 and 2019 – and is haemorrhaging leaders and support, and allegations of corruption have dogged her tenure. Even in the upcoming polls, it is the SP – and not the BSP – which is seen by many commentators as the primary challenger to the Bharatiya Janata Party, even as both parties attempt to pry away a section of the BSP’s core base, Dalits.
But that may not be easy. Despite her losses, Mayawati has secured roughly 20% vote share in every electoral outing, indicating that Jatavs, the largest community among the Dalits, and various other marginalised groups continue to trust her. The BSP has a dedicated, if somewhat shrunken, network of workers and volunteers who are tied to the party for ideological, not transactional, reasons. It’s difficult to say whether the BSP can regain its former glory, but it still retains enough support to be a key player in a close election. Don’t count the elephant out just yet.
One Subscription.
Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines
to 100 year archives.
Archives
HT App & Website