Lucknow:
The leader known for her mass appeal was rejected today across her home state. Of Uttar Pradesh's 403 seats, Mayawati will not win more than 100 seats, barely half the amount she had racked up in 2007. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the man she has loved to hate, will return to power as chief minister - his fourth term ends her hopes for a fifth.
Though there were reports that the Bahujan Samaj Party would meet Governor BL Joshi this afternoon to formally hand in her resignation, no appointment had been sought or granted till 3 pm.
Mayawati's home this morning was deserted as the leads poured in, promising an emphatic win for Mr Yadav and his son, Akhilesh, who scripted their campaign. He told NDTV that Mayawati and her party may have been punished by UP for their single-minded focus on establishing her political legacy. He was referring to the oversize concrete elephants - her party's symbol - that Mayawati has installed at huge cost to the state in different memorial parks. She also commissioned statues of herself and mentor Kanshi Ram. Those statues, Akhilesh said, will not be broken.
The elephants, plus size even by jumbo standards, are the mute remnants of a once-towering leader, who simply failed to deliver. Over her term, she became infamous for never meeting people directly. There were no janta durbars. At rallies, unlike other leaders, she made no attempt to reach across the barricades and touch the hands of people who had gathered to hear her. No headway was made in her state's battle with crime, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, atrocities towards Dalits and women. Her most senior ministers were accused of corruption; as the elections approached, she dismissed many of them hoping to counter the Opposition's campaign that often focused on the habitual graft of her administration. Ahead of the elections, she sacked 15 ministers from her government.
In the last elections, she managed to sell the BSP to voters as a one-stop party for Dalits, Brahmins and Muslims. This time, that claim flailed and drowned. The Muslim population chose the Yadavs.
The woman described by former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao "as a miracle of democracy" has said of herself, "In order to end the reign of the modern-day Kans, Mayawati, the incarnation of Krishna will have to come to power." She has proved herself the craftiest exponent of the caste equations that have been the single most important electoral factor in UP in the last 16 years. But in the absence of effective governance and development, UP has asked for more. Mayawati will need to regroup and recharge. She has much work experience in recovering from political setbacks. Between 1993 and 2003, Mayawati served as chief minister thrice through unhappy political marriages with parties including the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. Those terms were not completed as the alliances collapsed. It was not till 2007 that she forced UP's first clear verdict in an election.