BSP supremo Mayawati is maintaining silence on the issue of her party’s support to the Centre at a time when she has virtually declared the Congress her party’s main rival in the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Her attack is seen
as a recognition of the Congress’ growing appeal in the state. This is because she remained silent on the Samajwadi Party and did not attach much importance to the BJP at a recent rally in Noida.
The BSP has 39 members in Parliament of which 21 are in the Lok Sabha and 18 in the Rajya Sabha. But the Mayawati-led party has been backing the Manmohan Singh government from outside unconditionally.
Ms Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, has been predicting a mid-term general election and publicly speculating that the Congress would make a dalit — either Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar or Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde — the Prime Minister. But she does not feel it necessary to explain as to why her BSP is backing the Congress-led government at the Centre.
Her floating of Ms Kumar and Mr Shinde’s names as the PM candidates is being seen in the Congress as a first sign of nervousness. She is uncertain of returning to power in Uttar Pradesh this time.
In the last election she came to power on her own in UP on the slogan of “Sarvjan Hitay”. But this time, she is once again going to back to the basics — bahujan hitaya and thus focusing on the dalit agenda, sources said. The attack on the Congress is a clear indication that she is uncertain of non-dalit votes. Besides, minorities may not whole-heartedly back the BSP this time.
She is focusing on the dalit agenda at a time when the Congress, the BJP and even the Samjawadi Party are highlighting the Mayawati government’s weakness on corruption and governance.
In fact, development has never been a main agenda of key political parties in the state. They either talk of social justice, reservation, Ayodhya or division of the state by creating Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh and Poorvanchal.
Although speculation is rife whether the UP Assembly polls would be held in February or April next year, political players are predicting a fractured verdict once again.