Amid changing political landscape, can Maya's BSP reclaim lost ground?

Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may have been struggling, but is it truly out of the game? Despite being hit hard by the changing political landscape in North India and elsewhere, the four-decade-old organisation could still make a mark in its own way. It has always fought for the cause of Dalits, and thus, they still look at the party with quite a bit of hope. That is where the party counts.

Mayawati is still beholden to a large Dalit vote bank more than any other leader. These voters could well have once again electorally backed her in Uttar Pradesh or even through the larger part of the Hindi heartland but for the narrow sectarian turn that politics has lately taken. And to say it bluntly, this is proving to be a virtual cul-de-sac for her.

Kanshi Ram’s life was that of a relentless struggle. He would go from village to village on his bicycle, asking for one rupee and a vote at the doorsteps of poor Dalits.

She is not alone in it, but her harried Dalit voters are also deeply caught up in this. They can no longer look for their social emancipation or political and economic empowerment that Mayawati has often vowed to bring for them. Now, after 13 years of loss of power in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati (she was Chief Minister till 2012) has once again decided to fall back upon the hard-fought legacy of BSP’s founding father and her guide, philosopher and mentor, the late Kanshi Ram.

Ceremony on Kanshi Ram's death anniversary

She met and addressed her party cohorts at 12 Mall Avenue Road, where the BSP office is located, in Lucknow on September 7 (Sunday). This led to the announcement of a grand ceremony for all party supporters on October 9 to mark Kanshi Ram's 18th death anniversary at his Lucknow memorial. She built the memorial during her tenure as a CM. After paying tributes, Mayawati is set to address the gathering.

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A noble step, though this may look to be, it cannot take the party or its leader beyond its fleeting optics. The real task before her and the party is to deal with the recent years’ virtual reconfiguring of social, political and economic ethos and norms. The new, broader and dominant scheme of things today is turning poor and deserving sections right to what should justifiably be theirs into consideration, favour or privilege of sorts.

If Dalits have been stigmatised down the ages, those who have been behind this are now seeming to offer a break or respite. But, by finding an alternative whereby another social group or entity can be subjected to the same kind of treatment that was practised since yore to push Dalits down the ladder.

This new idea that has come into play is actually a political and electoral tool to bring the traditionally victimised sections to join and swell the ranks of victimisers. It seeks to offset the victim’s past vicissitudes by offering him the ability to victimise an altogether different section so that the victim, since the hoary past, can feel safe, empowered and more consequential than before.

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The right-wing onslaught

Of late, the virtual 'Dalitification of Muslims' has become too conspicuous to be missed by anybody. Among other things, this is meant to serve as a bit of consolation to Dalits as the Hindutva offers them an opportunity to believe that they are now as ‘privileged’ as those in society’s higher rungs and can, alongside them, run their will over hapless minorities – mainly Muslims and in some cases Christians.

It is this sense, however misplaced, of scaling up historically placed and deeply entrenched hierarchy that has been gnawing into the votes of parties that stand for fair play, parity, and egalitarianism. This includes the BSP. The rightwing onslaught is accompanied by the fear of falling out with the masses in case of calling it out, since it has been suggestively or notionally aligned with the people’s faith.

What Kanshi Ram dreamt, and what unfolded

But this is what Kanshi Ram had once challenged. Way back in 1978, he founded the Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF). It served as a precursor to the BSP's formation. The first was a movement, and the second was a party and a movement, both. Over the years, the BSP became a more power-centric party like most of its contemporaries; and, thus, moved away from the kind of movement its founder had once visualised.

Kanshi Ram’s life was that of a relentless struggle. He would go from village to village on his bicycle, asking for one rupee and a vote at the doorsteps of poor Dalits.

Minorities were also an integral part of Kanshi Ram’s game-changing journey. He staunchly believed in social and political alliances. In the Assembly polls that were held in 1993, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the BSP and Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance, jointly led by Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav under the arrangement made by Kanshi Ram, successfully challenged and humbled the BJP and its former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in UP.

Also, subsequently, Mayawati and BSP benefited more than the SP and Akhilesh Yadav when the two fought the 2019 Lok Sabha polls together in alliance against the BJP in UP but lost.

This was even though her alliance with the BJP made her CM in UP thrice, but it could never last and ended abruptly on all three occasions. The fourth time, in 2007, BSP, led by Maya, could win the polls against both SP and BJP. Ever since, Mayawati has shown contempt for any pre-poll alliance, with the 2019 elections being the only exception, when she aligned with the SP under Akhilesh.

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This has prompted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to once remark that Narendra Modi could again become Prime Minister after the last Lok Sabha elections only because Akhilesh and Mayawati did not join the INDIA coalition before the 2024 polls. This did not impress Mayawati, although it is a fact that regional parties without a support base among more than one social or caste group, either directly or via another caste-centric party, can hardly face the kind of challenge posed by the BJP over the past several years.

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Relying on nephew

Anyway, Mayawati appears to be finally waking up now to the task before her, and it is to revive her rapidly sinking party that she had once catapulted to power in UP. For this, more than anybody else, she is relying upon her London-educated nephew Akash Anand. The 30-year-old was appointed national coordinator of the party in May this year. Now he has been entrusted by Mayawati to prepare the pitch for the BSP in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls.

He has planned to take out Sarvajan Hitay Yatra (or welfare for all march) from September 10 from Bhabhua in Kaimur region to other parts of Bihar. It again shows that BSP is waiting to throw its hat in the battle for Bihar despite the fact that in Bihar, the contest is mainly between two multiparty coalitions, with the BJP and the Congress. That is why Mayawati’s party is often dubbed as the BJP’s B-Team. So much so that, whether actual or not, she is blamed for working under the shadow of the Centre’s ruling party to save herself from a possible vendetta.

Mayawati appears to be finally waking up now to the task before her, and it is to revive her rapidly sinking party that she had once catapulted to power in UP

However, the fact is that Mayawati has her eyes mainly on the UP Assembly elections slated for 2027. But to make a mark in UP, not only Mayawati but also her other peers in the Opposition need to be on the same side before taking on the BJP. If Mayawati keeps on shying from this, she will only be seen as playing second fiddle to the BJP.

To overcome this, she can well learn a bit from the Aam Aadmi Party, which has withdrawn from the INDIA Bloc but comes together with the formation on issues that deserve a joint call by all similar or non-BJP and non-NDA parties.