Having received a resounding blow in the lok Sabha election, the Bahujan Samaj Party has dropped the social engineering strategy and is returning to its tried and tested Dalit vote-bank
When senior Bahujan Samaj Party leader Swamy Prasad Maurya asked his party workers not to worship Ganesh and Gauri during marriage ceremonies, as it reflected the Manuwadi mentality, it was clear that the party was going back to its old ways of segregating Dalits from the upper castes. BSP chief Mayawati issued a Press release distancing the party from Mr Maurya’s statement. But she did not take any action against him. It is not clear if Mr Maurya’s statement was part of a big political design.
The BSP is a straight-jacket party where Ms Mayawati’s words are the law. No leader can give any public statement without her approval. Whosoever has violated this diktat has been ignominiously shown the door. Mr Raj Bahadur, who built the BSP brick-by-brick, was thrown out almost two decades ago because he gave a statement that Ms Mayawati did not like. Mr Bahadur was considered close to party ideologue Kanshi Ram; when he was sacked, many eyebrows were raised but no questions asked. Then there were other leaders like Jung Bahadur Patel, RK Chaudhary and RK Patel, who were also thrown out because they deviated from the party line.
Mr Chaudhary is the only leader who has been brought back into the party — that too only recently — while others have moved on and joined other political outfits.
In this case, Mr Maurya has been spared. Ms Mayawati did not admonish him for his views but merely said that they did not reflect the views of per party. Her two-page statement on this issue, therefore, had a silent approval for Mr Maurya, who is the BSP’s national general secretary. This development is a clear indication that the BSP is planning to go back to its Kanshi Ram era of casteist politics. In the process, it will possibly obliterate the modern political line of Sarv Samaj that had been adopted by Ms Mayawati.
This change of heart is not sudden. Recent electoral results have forced Ms Mayawati to change the party’s political line. The lok Sabha election, wherein the BSP drew a blank in Uttar Pradesh, busted the myth that the Dalits support Ms Mayawati and that they vote en bloc in favour of the BSP. This political dictum was the strength for Ms Mayawati. Other castes are aligned with the BSP only because Ms Mayawati adds power to the Dalit votes.
But this myth was shattered. For the first time in two decades, the Dalits became a floating vote-bank and voted for different parties of their liking. In the lok Sabha election, they voted in favour of the BJP while in the by-election, they voted for the Samajwadi Party, negating Ms Mayawati’s appeal for support to select independent candidates.
This development put Ms Mayawati on shaky ground. She knows that the BSP can only forge new alliances, if it enjoys the backing of the Bahujan Samaj (read Dalits). The upper caste is already tilting towards the BJP and this politically sensitive class will not align with the BSP as long as the latter has the complete support of the Dalits.
Hence, Ms Mayawati has changed her strategy. After the lok Sabha election debacle, she held a meeting with party leaders belonging to the ‘hardcore BSP cadre’. Surprisingly, senior party leader Satish Chandra Misra was not invited. Questions were raised about the importance of Brahmin leaders in the party. It was also asked as to how many Brahmins voted in favour of the BSP in the lok Sabha election. It was made clear in the meeting that top posts in the party will now go to Dalits only. Within a week, party units were disbanded.
The bhaichara committees that formed the bulwark of the BSP’s social engineering experiment in 2007, catapulting the party to power with a resounding victory, have been scrapped. leaders of these committees have been asked to go to the villages and revive links with the party base — mainly Dalits.
This was done after the BJP started its membership drive in Uttar Pradesh, focusing on regions where it did exceedingly well, despite not having a votebank. It was believed that Dalits in those area voted for the BJP in the lok Sabha election.
Clearly, Ms Mayawati’s charisma is on the wane. With a change in strategy, she has decided to return to the Backward And the Minority Communities Employees’ Federation strategy that was pursued by Kanshi Ram and had helped the BSP reach the pinnacle of power in Uttar Pradesh in 2007. Kanshi Ram, had kept his focus on the Dalits and most backward castes. He had never shown any inclination to bring upper castes into the party fold.
Ms Mayawati has also returned to her old strategy now. Hence, she visited the house of Badaun gang rape victim. The family belongs to the Shakya community — a politically sensitive Other Backward Class in central Uttar Pradesh. Ms Mayawati generally does not visit victims’ homes herself. But here she preferred to walk the extra mile to further her party’s interests. She has also asked BSP leaders to keep in touch with Dalits officials. It remains to be seen if this return to basics will work.
