Mayawati caught in her own jaal as Jatav voters shift loyalty

LUCKNOW: A disastrous performance by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a sign that the party has lost its core Jatav voters, the subcaste its chief Mayawati belongs to.
Her strategy to have a post-poll role in search of a “satta ki master chaabi (master key to power)” has been hit as much as her own image of being an influential Dalit leader — Jatavs, who form 55% of the Dalit population and 11% of the total population, had rallied behind her till now.Chandrashekhar Azad, the man who has presented himself before Dalits as a viable alternative, has won from Nagina on the banner of his Azad Samaj Party.
Being out of office for long in UP is one reason to drive core voters away, apart from BJP making inroads with its welfare schemes. BSP is now back to its position in 2014 when it had zilch. It has not only failed to open its account, but its vote share has dipped from over 19% in 2019 to around 9%. It had won 10 seats in 2019 LS polls when it contested in alliance with Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal.
This time, the campaign was marked by missteps. Firstly, the decision to contest alone was perceived as a ‘suicidal move’. There were voices of dissent even from within. Prominent Muslim leaders like Imran Masood and Amroha MP Danish Ali were expelled after they reached out to Rahul Gandhi. Masood won from Saharanpur on a Congress ticket. Knowing that BSP would not make it alone, MPs Sangeeta Azad, Ritesh Pandey and Malook Nagar also quit.
Mayawati stuck to her party’s foundational ideology to distribute tickets based on ‘Jiski Jitni Hissedari, Uski Utni Bhagidari’. She fielded 20 Muslims, 18 Dalits, 16 OBCs and 15 Brahmins, but this included several BJP turncoats. They supplanted candidates who were the party’s first choice. In all, BSP re placed its candidates in 14 seats. But it was the replacement of Shrikala Singh, wife of gangster-politician Dhananjay Singh in Jaunpur, and ex-BJP district president Dayashanker Mishra in Basti which led to the perception that BSP was acting under pressure. “Mishra has been active in Basti for more than three decades. He could have done substantial damage to BJP,” said sources.
The last bit of controversy was around her nephew Akash Anand, who was midway through the campaign divested of the national coordinator’s post and succeeded by Mayawati herself. This led to speculation that BSP’s leadership took the step to shield him, having realised it was not winning even a single seat.