Mayawati’s role can ease new alignments

Bahujan Samaj Party founder-leader Mayawati is a leading light of north Indian politics by any yardstick, and is conspicuously the most important dalit political figure of the country, with her influence among the dalit community spread across India.

For this reason alone, her resignation from the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, following an outburst of anger when she was barracked by the Treasury benches for raising dalit-related issues and for not being given the chance by the deputy chairman to complete her submission, although she had crossed the brief time limit, is an event of political significance as it is likely to affect political configurations in the foreseeable future.

Ms Mayawati has twice been chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The second time round, the BSP fought without alliances and won hands down. Her party does not have a single Lok Sabha MP today but it gained more than 20 per cent of the popular votes in 2014, despite the Modi wave. In the recent Assembly election in UP, she did not garner many seats on account of first-past-the-post system, and yet was well over 20 per cent in vote share.

Ms Mayawati had made an unseemly virtue of going it alone, and shunning alliances, thinking such a strategy would always help her consolidate larger sections of public support. It is now evident that if she had been aligned with the other secular parties in UP, the phenomenon of the “Modi wave” would not have been recorded. Her party’s electoral defeats twice over in quick succession — in 2014 and 2017 — now appear to have produced a rethink on her part.

From her statements this was evident soon after the rout of the secular groups — BSP, Akhilesh faction of Samajwadi Party, and Congress — in the UP Assembly poll. That’s when the trio were obliged to reflect on the efficacy of the “Bihar model” which routed the BJP in 2015. Since the ruckus in the Upper House leading to Ms Mayawati’s storming out, Akhilesh Yadav’s SP and the Congress have indicated support for her. From Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Lalu Prasad Yadav has signalled strong support.

The BSP supremo’s Rajya Sabha term was ending in April next year. She has pre-empted that by dramatically quitting on an emotive issue in a bid to widen her support base. This could also help consolidate her hold on sections of dalits who were being swayed by younger leaders who have been running “movements” of late, or by elements who had succumbed to the BJP’s blandishments on election eve.

Ms Mayawati’s capacity to retain and enlarge her influence will naturally depend to a good extent on her meeting at least halfway the grouses of her in-house and sympathetic external critics. It will also be affected by her ability to link up with other parties which can create hope of electoral dividend in the future.