End of BSP: Fall of the bright star that shone blue

NEW DELHI: The Bahujan Samaj Party, the paradigm-shifting social assertion movement that morphed into a political platform of Dalits in 1990s, has almost faded away from the political field in UP.

BSP’s tally of a solitary seat in an assembly of 403 MLAs, following a tally of 19 seats in 2017 (in 2009, BSP won 20 MPs in

Lok Sabha

), underlines its evisceration — an expected outcome given the party’s intriguing absence in the run-up to the 2022 battle.

The back-to-back debacles of SP returns the state to pre-BSP bipolarity, with Samajwadi Party as the principal opposition pole and BJP as the dominant tent.

It was not supposed to be so. Ever since

Kanshi Ram

burst on the scene, with a young teacher-turned-activist Mayawati in tow, BSP grew from strength to strength by allying with mainstream parties to gain acceptability. Every time Mayawati became the CM with BJP’s help, the

saffron party

’s muscle diminished that bit, even as it was, paradoxically, further sucked into BSP’s embrace. Mayawati’s apogee came in 2007 when BSP romped home with a majority, a staggering achievement since no party had managed it since 1991.

The rapid rise planted her at the centre of UP’s power matrix, as she brought with her a captive vote-base of Dalits and most backwards, adding Muslims to the mix in due course. Whether in office or out of it, she loomed large. When Mayawati lost to the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP in 2012, she was not despondent in defeat. “I don’t mind UP becoming a revolving chair between BSP and SP, like it is in Tamil Nadu between DMK and AIADMK,” she said. That was Mayawati at her imperious best, reminding the world of “Bahujan exceptionalism”.

Except that she did not bargain for BJP’s dramatic rise post-2014. As it lay listless after the annihilation in 2017 state polls, BSP joined hands with SP for the 2019 LS elections. The combine failed to deliver, but BSP won 10 seats, potentially laying the ground for a robust confrontation with BJP. However, Mayawati instantly snapped ties with SP, and disappeared from the political debate. Her decision has been linked to her purported vulnerability in a party funds case being investigated by the Centre.

The sole seat and it won this time around 13% vote-share attests to BSP’s near irrelevance while speculation abounds that the vast Dalit bloc may be up for grabs after years of loyalty to the elephant symbol.

The crumbling of the first potent platform for Dalits that fired the marginalized community’s imagination nationally, marks a sombre moment for champions of social justice.

In the debris of the opposition’s decimation in Lucknow lies a once bright star. The one that shone blue.