Maya’s Maya on the wane

Not only is she losing her party's support base, the Brahmins and Dalits too are leaving Mayawati
Pradeep Kapoor Lucknow

BSP supremo Mayawati is facing tough times. She is almost isolated politically and her traditional Dalit vote bank is eroding. Her much-touted social engineering has failed. To top it all, there are a slew of cases against her including disproportionate assets and Taj heritage corridor case in the Supreme Court.

The opposition parties in UP are gaining in strength and readying to take her on. The tide turned sharply against her after the general elections results were out. Not only did she perform poorly at the polls, but parties which projected her as a possible prime minister before the polls, effectively deserted her.

After the Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati returned to her singular Dalit agenda when she realised that her social engineering strategy, which brought her to power in UP in 2007, has failed. During her series of review meetings, she blamed Muslims and Brahmins for not voting for her party in the Lok Sabha polls. As a result, she announced that Satish Chandra Mishra and Nasimuddin Siddiqui would no longer be the Brahmin and the Muslim face of BSP. She sacked or removed several officials and party leaders. She declared that her successor would only be a Dalit. Mayawati also directed her officers to take steps to prevent atrocities on Dalits and expedite development work in Dalit villages.

Meanwhile, her counter-reaction against UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house has boomeranged when Joshi's Lucknow house was burnt and ransacked, allegedly by BSP members. Joshi's arrest and imprisonment has been condemned by all political parties. Ironically, BSP leader MM Intezar Abdi alias Bobby, who has been named in the FIR for burning Joshi's house, has been rewarded with a minister of state status. He has been appointed chairman of the UP Ganna Kisan Sansthan.

Joshi had earlier vehemently criticised the government for sending the director-general of police by a helicopter to pay a few thousands of rupees as compensation to rape victims from the Dalit community. In that context, she made remarks about Mayawati in Moradabad, which were uncalled for. Joshi later apologised. But her criticism of the DGP has been vindicated. The UP government has now withdrawn the controversial order to send the DGP by helicopter with compensation for rape victims.

Meanwhile, Joshi has demanded a CBI probe into the way her house was burnt and ransacked. Now, for the Congress, it's an all-out
war against Mayawati. Joshi said that the Congress will chalk out strategy for the fight on August 4 in Lucknow in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.

Mayawati was quick to cash in on Joshi's remarks against her. She called Joshi and the Congress anti-Dalit. She even blamed the Congress for ignoring the Dalits since independence. She went on an offensive against Rahul Gandhi and released a white paper on the power crisis. She blamed the Congress-led government at the Centre for ignoring the power sector.