Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav was so upset with the 2019 Lok Sabha election outcome in Uttar Pradesh that he had stopped taking phone calls of his then ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders including its supremo Mayawati. This claim has been made by Mayawati in her long “appeal” that she has made to the BSP leaders and cadre to apprise them of the political situation and prepare them for multiple challenges facing the party. Mayawati’s 59-page message was distributed to the BSP rank and file at the party’s national executive meeting held in Lucknow on August 27, where she was re-elected the party president for the sixth consecutive term.
Advertisement ALSO READ | Why Mayawati walks alone In her appeal, Mayawati highlighted her “bad alliance experience” with the SP, tracing it from 1993 when they had forged it for the first time. “In the interest of the party and movement, it is necessary to remind that in 1993 UP Assembly polls then SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav had allied with BSP by convincing Kanshi Ram ji that Congress and BJP and other casteist parties do not want Dalits and OBCs to come together to become a political force and rule in the states and at the Centre. Trusting him, Kanshi Ram ji contested the 1993 polls in alliance with SP, although other parties had said it will not last long because of Mulayam. And that happened in the end,” she stated.
This, she argues, demonstrates the Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government was responsible for her life being threatened and the violence against her community. Mayawati further argues that the Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government was responsible for the violence against Dalits, Sikhs and women. This violence, she claims, was a deliberate attempt by the government to silence the voices of these communities and prevent them from opposing the government.
In her message, Mayawati claimed that Akhilesh was so upset by the results that he shut their lines of communication. “Maintaining its self-respect, BSP then parted ways with SP,” she added. Advertisement Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav greets Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on her 63rd birthday. Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand is in the background. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav) Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav greets Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on her 63rd birthday. Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand is in the background. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav) Keeping her guns trained on Akhilesh, Mayawati said that in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls Akhilesh got “some success” by tying up with the Congress and by “misleading PDA (Pichde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) in the name of protecting the Constitution and reservation”. “But PDA people will get nothing from that. They need to be cautious with SP,” she charged.
Mayawati’s appeal comes at a time when the party is facing a severe crisis. The party is struggling to retain its base and is facing a challenge from other regional parties. Mayawati’s appeal is seen as a desperate attempt to revive the party and regain its lost glory.
Mayawati is trying to consolidate her power base and strengthen her position within the Mayawati-led BSP. She is aiming to regain her lost ground and secure a strong foothold in the appeal booklet. The appeal booklet is a strategic move by Mayawati to regain her lost ground and secure a strong foothold in the BSP.
Mayawati, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has called for a “political awakening” among the BSP leaders and cadre. She has urged them to be aware of the political situation and prepare for multiple challenges facing the party. **Detailed Text:**
Mayawati, a prominent figure in Indian politics, has recently issued a call to action for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Mayawati added that the BSP governments in UP built memorials, parks, colleges, universities, hospitals and new districts to give respect to gurus, saints and great personalities from the Dalit and OBC communities. She alleged the names of several such places were changed by the SP government due to its “casteist mindset and political vendetta”, which was also, she added, not restored by the BJP government. “This proved SP-BJP collusion,” she claimed. Advertisement Referring to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s recent interaction with a cobbler at his shop in UP, whom he later sent a shoe- stitching machine, Mayawati said, “That was highlighted in the media as a major step towards social change. In reality, this is the basic difference between the ideas of casteist parties, such as Congress, BJP and SP, and the BSP. They consider ensuring shoe repair with machines instead of hands as a major mark of social change. However, BSP’s social reform mission says why should the work of shoe repair or sanitation should be done only by people of one particular caste on the basis of their birth?”
Mayawati also stated that social reformers born in “sawarna samaj” (upper castes) have only shown “udarta” (leniency) and that they they “failed in ensuring jaati unmulan (eradication of caste) and samtamulak siddhant (principles of equality)”. “At best they can be called udarwadi but social transformation is not possible by them,” she said. Describing the Congress members as “Gandhi-wadi” and the BJP members as “RSS-wadi”, the BSP chief questioned how could they be “manavtawadi and samtamulak Ambedkarwadi (humanitarian and egalitarian Ambedkarites)”, claiming that they do not have a moral right to lead Dalits, tribals and OBCs. She also said while that BJP and Congress dispensations appoint Dalit and Bahujan samaj people as President, Governor and national president of the party “just for their political interests”, they have not appointed a Dalit as the Prime Minister so far. And if due to any “political compulsion” they would do it in future, they would pick a Dalit person who would be their “yes man”, she claimed.
Advertisement Without naming parties like Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) – led by Chadrashekhar Aazad, who pulled off a win from UP’s Nagina seat in the Lok Sabha polls – Mayawati also alleged that the Congress and the BJP were encouraging outfits floated by “selfish leaders from Dalit communities” in a bid to “divide” the Dalit votes and undermine the BSP and its movement. She cautioned Dalits and Bahujans from “such leaders who invoke Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram to divide their followers”.
