By Kulsum Mustafa
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo, Mayawati is the uncrowned queen of intrigues. Those who have studied her political moves know this much too well. In fact, a vocal Mayawati is less dangerous than the silent one. This was proved most aptly in the 2007 elections, when Mayawati, who had been lying low returned to power with a thumping majority when the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections were announced. Everyone, primarily the media, had written her off completely but she gave everyone a huge surprise. The media personnel had to sheepishly hide their faces when Mayawati addressed the mandatory press conference after being sworn in as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The victory spelled the triumph of Mayawati’s social engineering formula which had brought Dalits, Brahmins, and Muslim voters on one single platform.
But the 2007 elections appeared to be her best and last performance so far. In later assembly elections of 2012 and 2017 and general elections of 2019, BSP was reduced to nearly a naught. In 2017 BSP won just 19 seats, SP and Congress together got 54, and BJP and its allies formed the government with a whopping 325 seats. 2017 gave a big hit to SP and Congress but it proved to spell the death-knell for the three-time chief minister Mayawati. The election results put a big question mark on her political future. Mayawati had to decide her role in the political setup and it seems she had very little choice. Not one to say die Mayawati seems to have decided to be the game-changer or in crude terms ‘game spoiler’ in this bi-polar election where the fight is between the BJP and the SP and there is no place left for a third player.
Mayawati’s strategy for 2022 elections
For the 2022 elections, Mayawati appears to have molded her strategy in a way that she can, when the time came to strike the right deal. Though BSP is contesting on all the 403 seats, BSP will step in to offer support to any of the two parties which fall short of the magical number. Of course at a price.
If insiders are to be believed the lady is in constant touch with the powers that matter in both parties. In fact, at one of his rallies Union home minister Amit Shah gave all indications of this. . As the election moved to phase three where BSP had a role to play Shah who is known as BJP Chanakya, started using Mayawati’s name in his election campaigns. It was a clear indication of the BJP poll strategy that in case he cannot get Dalit and OBC voters for BJP the party will direct them to BSP. Later post-election BJP and BSP could strike a deal.
Mayawati will shift gears as and when required, her ideology is governed by power. It is now an established fact that for Mayawati money and power go hand in hand. This is not the first time that Mayawati will align with any political party based on these sentiments.
Her planned moves
Mayawati has not been sitting idle. Her first planned move was to give maximum tickets to Muslim candidates. By doing so she managed to cut the votes of SP Muslim candidates and thus paved the way for the BJP candidates. The saffron party following a total Hindutva mode did not bypass its ‘sub ka saath sub ka vikas’ ideology and did not give a single election ticket to any Muslim candidate.
Mayawati’s second move was to keep her doors open for the turncoats. She knew that due to the SP alliance with smaller parties, many SP ticket aspirants, especially those who are either sitting or Ex MLAs would feel dejected and would be looking for openings in BSP. Mayawati sent out the message that her party would accommodate these disgruntled elements. Her warm welcome to turncoats heavily dented SP. For example, two very prominent turncoats who joined her party are former SP MLAs Rushdie of Rudauli and former SP minister and Shivpal loyalist Sayyeda Shadab Fatima.
Highly disappointed that her political mentor Shivpal Yadav could get just a ticket for himself after he signed a truce with Akhilesh Yadav, Shadab Fatima gave an impression that she had opted to go it alone. But all along it seemed she had a secret pact with Mayawati. At the eleventh hour, she was inducted into BSP and was chosen to challenge SBSP chief, former BJP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, who had joined hands with Akhilesh. The other example is that of SP former MLA from Rudauli – Rushdie’who was also given the BSP banner to contest in these elections from his home town.
Of course, Mayawati is denying she has any post-poll alliance with any party. Calling the BSP the messiah of the downtrodden she continues that both Congress and SP are misleading the SC community and that it is only the BSP, a national political outfit that follows the principle of ‘ sarvjan hitae, Sarvjan shukjae (benefits for all and peace and happiness for all brotherhood).
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
