The adage that ‘everything is possible in politics’ has been proved right once again with the election win of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in India’s most politically significant State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) under the leadership of one time teacher turned politician Mayawati. Wooing the upper castes on her side, Mayawati powered the BSP to a stunning victory in UP, crushing both the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, to take over as Chief Minister for a fourth time. Some notables of this election includes the performance of the Election Commission of India, which has done well to ensure peaceful conduct of polls spread across many weeks and made possible by the vigil it had kept despite criticism from the Mulayam Singh led SP government. The other notable is Mayawati’s BSP securing an absolute majority on its own to end 15 years of coalition politics in the State.
What will however top the significance of this election is the way Mayawati has been able to master and implement the art of social engineering. For students of politics and sociology in particular, the BSP’s model of electoral politics will be of both interest and future case study. The ‘Maya theory’ is simple political sense i.e. consolidating on her traditional base among Dalits but still accommodating tickets to upper caste candidates, including Brahmins and a large number of Muslims and OBCs. As simple as it may look, this would not have been possible if Mayawati did not have the foresight to take this political risk. The Maya theory also goes to show that besides having a well grounded strategy, the capacity or otherwise of political leadership to deliver on this has a forbearing on the end result. Concurrently, in terms of drawing political legitimacy, the mandate achieved by Mayawati is as broad based as one can get. Against the backdrop of recent fractured verdicts, caste permutations and social divide, it is truly remarkable of what the BSP under Mayawati has been able to coalesce together—a rainbow coalition of all section of people. Mayawati has clearly reinvented the politics of conciliation in the Hindi heartland.
Also to be taken as a lesson in political leadership is the manner in which Mayawati shed her image as being only a dalit leader and instead worked outside the box of political alignment by drawing the upper castes to her side. By doing this, she has given spin to a new political equation that has the wherewithal to propel her and the BSP into national politics in a major way. Not that the BSP was a pushover before this election but the total dominance of the BSP in UP politics circa 2007 has now confirmed the BSP as a force that will make or unmake a government in the Centre when the next General Election comes. For the Congress, which remains stuck with no forward movement, the UP election result in terms of national politics will nevertheless give Sonia Gandhi and the UPA allies a shot in the arm with the BJP decimated in its stronghold and its bete noire the SP shut out of power. More importantly for Mayawati’s political career graph, the mandate she has won in the UP election has truly transformed her overnight into a leader with national credentials. This is truly the stuff of politics.
