Mayawati, four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and chief of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is aggrieved - she feels that the media is ignoring her in favour of “the high-flying glamour boys" (Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi), according to sources close to her who spoke to this writer.
It is correct that the structuring and last-minute reworking of the tie-up between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress No 2 Rahul Gandhi grabbed them an inordinate amount of media space. "
Dilli ki media
koh sirf cream polish samajh mein aati hai" (Delhi media only understands cream and polish or elitist fate) said a senior BSP leader, in a rather delightful dismissal. Others like him say that while the media has obsessed over the alliance which hopes to be the BJP's giant killer, the facts on the ground are being ignored.
Consider the following.
1. There are 73 assembly constituencies where Muslims form more than 30 percent of the electorate, while in another 70 assembly constituencies, Muslims are between 20 and 30 percent of the voters. The BSP says that it has started work in all these constituencies much before the other parties. Mayawati has extensively campaigned in these constituencies and was first off the block announcing a record number of Muslim candidates - 97 for a total of 403 seats (She is putting up 86 Dalit candidates). Mayawati stops her public meetings if the
azaan rings out, calling worshippers to pray.
2. Her party’s leaders say that Mayawati spurned an alliance with the Congress as the party has not been in power in UP for more than 27 years. The Congress's performance in the Lok Sabha elections underscored its relegation to a bit player. Mayawati told two senior Congress emissaries that while her loyal Jatav (Dalit) vote is transferable and could help back Congress candidates, the 10 percent vote that the Congress still manages will not support her candidates, so she simply does not see any advantage to the alliance. "
Behen-ji does not need fancy foreign or local strategists. We know our people and they crave the most basic thing: law and order, which will allow economic opportunity for all," said senior BSP leader Satish Mishra in a jibe at Congress strategist Prashant Kishor and Steve Jarding, a public policy professor at Harvard who advises Akhilesh Yadav on his campaign.
3. Mayawati feels that the media, which these days she's extra-careful not to call
manuwadi (elitist) as she did in the past, does not give her enough play and air time. However, she believes the UP voter is listening carefully to her speeches and dismissal of the Yadav family fight and soap opera as a
Noora Kushti (a rigged fight). Mayawati feels that the family feud, which was political centerstage for weeks, was masterminded by her canniest and most persistent opponent, Mulayam Singh, to combat anti-incumbency against his son.
4. The BSP feels that its vote share will increase because the section of Dalits who voted for the BJP in 2014 is now disillusioned. Apart from the Jatavs, the BJP won swathes of the Dalit vote during the Modi wave, resulting in its huge yield of 73 of 80 parliamentary seats. But with the Modi wave showing some ebbing, as shown in the Delhi and Bihar elections, and the restrictive beef laws brought in to the BJP-ruled states of Haryana and Maharashtra, the UP Dalits are reportedly upset with the BJP (Dalits are beef-eaters and are heavily employed in tanneries).
5. The BSP has calculated that the UP Dalit is politically hyper-aware after the assault on Dalits in Una last year and the suicide of Rohith Vemula at his Hyderabad university. Amit Shah, BJP President, has given tickets to Dalits but they are inconspicuous in campaign material which is heavily tilted towards the BJP's traditional upper caste base. This has delighted Mayawati who loses no opportunity to mock "Modi's use and throw approach" at her hugely attended rallies.
"Modi ke toh achhe din aa gaye, UP koh kya mila? (Good times for Modi, but how has UP benefited)?" You made him PM, he took away your money" she thunders to huge applause, referencing the PM’s demonetisation drive.
6. Mayawati makes no qualms about her ambitions to eventually be Prime Minister and directly attacks Modi at her meetings. She also rubs in the fact that if she wins, she will be present as Chief Minister in Lucknow to ensure that the
dabang (daring lawless) are kept in check. "Will Modi stay in Lucknow? He does not even stay in Delhi," she tells crowds to mock Modi's frequent foreign trips.
7. Mayawati has also cut back on her much-discussed aloof and arrogant demeanour after several high-value defections from the BSP to the BJP. She makes time to meet every block leader and is in constant touch with far-flung
karyakartas (workers
). Gone is the earlier hauteur, replaced with an oft-repeated public vow of not building any more monuments to herself. When Mayawati said this in public for the first time last year, it shocked BSP leaders who now point to it as her ability to adapt and read the voters’ mind. Says a BSP leader, "Is the media so colour blind? You keep projecting Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, now even Yadav Junior as challengers to Modi but not a woman who has been UP Chief Minister four times? Mayawati is truly a symbol of empowerment and the majority of the voters see her like that. Our voters are silent, they are diffident but they know how to press the button. The path to Delhi is only through UP and only through Dalits and Muslims and
Behenji has time on her side."
The two common threads that can be discerned in the different campaigns for Uttar Pradesh is that all parties have gone back to basics of vote-bank politics with a topping of
Vikaas (development) in order to garner the young voter who is the majority. So to appeal to the floating youth vote, jobs and freebies such as pressure cookers and smart phones are tumbling around. The second is that it's the entire opposition versus Narendra Modi and his demonetisation narrative.
So "
Apni behen, bahar ka PM" (our sister versus an outsider PM) is the BSP chant, while Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi are being
offered as "
Baahri versus
apne ladkey" (our boys versus the outsider). It does seem at this point that Shah has made a tactical error in not declaring a presumptive Chief Minister and putting the entire onus on Modi. If the BJP loses, the entire blame from currently irate and smarting BJP leaders who have been ignored will fall on Shah and Modi.
BSP leaders say that the lack of a Chief Ministerial candidate from the BJP and the consolidation of the Dalits and Muslims in favour of Mayawati make her position impregnable. Ask if the alliance between SP and Congress will net them Muslim votes and BSP leaders say that’s a media-bred fallacy as the Muslims have made up their minds for
Behen-ji. Then the litany of complaints of blackouts and inadequate coverage is trotted out.
There is a certain amount of truth to the BSP's complaint. Mayawati, unlike Akhilesh Yadav who is affable and ever-smiling, does get negligible press. Senior BSP leaders say Sonia Gandhi keeps the press at arm’s length, yet gets great coverage. BSP leaders feel a double standard is applied to Mayawati and their party.
(Swati Chaturvedi is an author and a journalist who has worked with The Indian Express, The Statesman and The Hindustan Times.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.