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Journalism of Courage
The setback in the 1998 parliamentary elections has left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) at a crossroads. With just over 20 per cent of votes, a pan-Indian ambition, a rigid stand on alliances and a damaged credibility as an alliance partner, the party is struggling to ride back to the corridors of power. To make things worse, there have been reports about differences in the senior party leadership. Shivanath Jha spoke to the party’s firebrand vice-president Mayawati. Excerpts:
Will your party support the front formed by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav?
No. The BSP has welcomed the formation of the new front to fight the BJP but it does not mean that the BSP will join it.
Mulayam Singh Yadav has urged Congress President Sonia Gandhi to come forward and form the Government at the Centre. Will the BSP extend its support to Sonia Gandhi?
If Sonia Gandhi launches an agitation against the BJP Government, Mayawati will be in the forefront. The BSP is ready to extend itssupport to any political party to form a (non-BJP) government.
Is there a possibility of an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh?
No question at all. The BSP will fight each and every election in UP on its own. It will fight all the 425 seats in the next Assembly election without any alliance. The BSP failed to get any political benefit from alliances in the past.
Why?
Because the BSP’s votes are transferable and we don’t want any further erosion from our party base. On most occasions, our alliance partner benefited and we always lost. Our party cadres are illiterate and that’s why the alliance partner could take advantage of our vote bank while we could not do the other way round.
The BSP has only around 20 per cent votes in Uttar Pradesh. To translate this into seats, the party will have to find an electoral ally.
Who says we have only 20 per cent votes? It is true that in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP got 20 per cent votes but it increasedto 21 per cent and in the last by-elections, the BSP got 30 per cent votes. Are bhai nowadays, governments are made with 30 to 33 per cent votes. We are very close to it.
There have been reports about differences in the party leadership. Kanshi Ram himself has said that the BSP does not have a second rung strong enough to carry on his mission after him. How do you react?
It’s wrong. You people write and print to create differences. There are no differences between Kanshi Ram and me. He is the leader of masses, especially the Dalits and the downtrodden. He formed the Bahujan Samaj Party for the benefit of the Bahujan Samaj all over the country.
He made me leader of the masses. Nobody can take someone else’s place but he put in all his strength to make me a leader of the people. He has strong faith in me, my leadership and my style of functioning. Don’t try to misguide the masses.
Hasn’t the BSP lost some of its core values by compromising with the BJP, a manuwadi (Brahminical) party?
Tosome extent, we did a mistake. I personally feel that the BJP is the number one manuwadi party. Though the BSP formed a government in Uttar Pradesh with its support, we were not ready to compromise at the cost of the Dalits, backwards and people belonging to the minority community.
So you’ll never ever go along with the BJP…
The BJP is an anti-Dalit, anti-backward and communal party. There is no question of any pre- or post-electoral alliance with the BJP.
Some senior BJP leaders left no stone unturned to get Kanshi Ram’s support (before the 1998 Parliament elections). They said if we agree to contest together, they will instal Mayawati as chief minister and allow her to rule for five years. But we never compromised. They wanted to crush the anti-manuwadi movement. No government paid attention to the socio-economic development of the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh. When I became chief minister I made all efforts to incorporate them into the mainstream of development.
But there are allegationsthat you violated the transfer and posting rules and favoured your blue-eyed boys to demoralise upper-caste officials?
This is incorrect. I never did so. I have promoted only those who had been ignored by my predecessors. I allowed them to go forward according to merit. But soon the BJP came to power and rejected all my orders and sent them back.
How can the BSP fight the BJP which managed to split the party, luring its MLAs with crumbs of power?
It is the party’s secret and I don’t want make it public.
Isn’t there frustration among the workers and leaders when they realise that power is far away and the leadership is adamant on not having electoral alliances?
No. They have been depressed for years. There is no frustration. They just believe in hum honge kamyab ek din.
