New Delhi: If there is one person who has somewhat gained in the Modi 2 tsunami it is BSP chief Mayawati who has got a lifeline with 10 MPs in the Lok Sabha. In 2014 general elections, she had drawn a blank and had performed dismally in the 2017 Assembly polls in the state.
Though many political pundits had written off the Dalit czarina, she has crawled back into some kind of relevance riding piggyback on the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
It is evident that ultimately the Bua-Babua alliance benefitted Ms Mayawati more than SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
While Yadav votes were seamlessly transferred to the BSP, the same could not be said about the Dalit votes. The SP has won only five seats with two going to the father son duo of Akhilesh and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
According to a senior political analyst, it was thesocio-political equation in Uttar Pradesh which prevented a seamless transfer of votes to the Yadav from the Dalits.
The Dalits have always felt dominated politically and economically by the Yadavs, who are more vocal and are the dominant caste. Thus they would rather vote for the BJP where their own party BSP is not competing, he said.
The Yadavs on the other hand seemed to have voted for the BSP as their social dominance was threatened by the “Thakur Raj” suposedly unleashed by the Yogi Adityaraj government in the state.
To give him credit, the senior Yadav had expressed his displeasure at the alliance before it was formalised, asserting that it would benefit the BSP morethan the SP.
This was apart from his now famous farewell speech to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha where he wished him a second term as the PM.
It might be recalled that the son had wrested the presidentship of the party after a bitter fight with his uncle Shivpal Yadav before the 2017 UP Assembly polls. During that time Mulayam Singh had refused to take sides and had in fact many a times favoured his brother.
This time around again Shivpal put up candidates separately and fought the polls in alliance with the Congress. His exit has hurt the party as it was Shivpal who used to manage booths for the SP.
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