BSP’s road to self-annihilation

The Bahujan Samaj Party’s march on the road to self-annihilation seems to be unstoppable. The party which contested without an alliance, secured 9.89 per cent votes in Uttar Pradesh, but did not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha.

In 2019, when it contested in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, it had won 10 seats while helping the ally, Samajwadi Party to garner six seats.

The party supremo Mayawati Devi has failed to explain what compulsion kept her from joining the INDIA bloc in the just concluded LS election even though she never tires of accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being anti-Dalit and opposed to the Constitution drafted by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Analysis of the BSP’s performance in seats from Uttar Pradesh reveals that the party entered the fray alone at the behest of the BJP mainly to cause a dent in the anti-BJP votes and also to fragment the Muslim votes.

Such an analysis makes it evident that the BSP received more votes than the winning margin of BJP (or its allies) in 16 seats leading to the simple conclusion: had it joined the INDIA formation, the BJP’s tally in UP would have dropped to just 19 seats, disabling it further from being a potent claimant to power at the centre.

Mayawati’s mysterious behaviour during the last three years makes it evident that her political trajectory is being dictated by the BJP ruling the Centre.

And in doing so, it is oblivious of what harm she is inflicting on her own party, which she inherited from Dr. Kanshi Ram who founded and assiduously built it to fortify Dalit interests, principally in the Hindi heartland states.

She inexplicably removed her nephew Akash Anand at the height of canvassing (on May 8) in the state from the position of national coordinator and her successor.

The action came after Anand criticised the BJP for using bulldozers against its detractors. Earlier, last December, she suspended party’s MP from Amroha, Danish Ali for alleged anti-party activities.

Ali had merely walked out of the Lok Sabha with other Opposition members to protest against the decision of the Speaker to expel TMC member Mahua Moitra.

These actions speak make it evident that Mayawati is working to a script dictated by the BJP to use the Dalit party against consolidation of voters opposed to the BJP.

And in doing this, she does not seem to mind a steep decline in the fortunes of her own party which enabled her to occupy the top executive chair in the largest state of India.