After poll lesson,Maya returns to B for Bahujan

Her social engineering failing to construct for her a strong Lok Sabha foundation...

Her social engineering failing to construct for her a strong Lok Sabha foundation,Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati has gone back to basics. Since the Lok Sabha results,she hasnt uttered the word Sarvajan even once. Instead,addressing the party national convention in Lucknow after it was clear that the BSP was far from getting the numbers she had hoped for,Mayawati spoke of the Bahujan Samaj comprising the shudras OBC and ati-shudras Dalits.

As originally conceived by BSP founder Kanshi Ram,it is the non-Yadav OBCs,the Backwards and Dalits who form the partys core support base.

However,before the Assembly elections in 2007,Mayawati expanded the BSPs core Bahujan Samaj agenda to Sarvajan _ a euphemism for Dalits,Brahmins and Muslims a combination that helped the party get a majority in the elections. But this time,in spite of fielding 20 Brahmins,14 Muslims and six Thakurs,the BSP won only 20 seats _ one less than even the Congress,which it never took seriously. More ominously for the BSP,it won only two of the 17 reserved Lok Sabha seats.

Hence the switch back to Bahujan Samaj. While Mayawati hasnt referred to the formulation again since the national convention,her actions in the past fortnight suggest she is already working on those lines:

n The Dalits have been the core of the BSPs support base and Mayawati has tried to reassure them that the BSP is alive to their problems. At her meeting with Superintendents of Police and district magistrates,the Chief Ministers asked them,among other things,not to ignore complaints of Dalits and ensure expeditious clearance of their pending cases of land allotment.

n There is traditional rivalry between Yadav and non-Yadav OBCs. While the Yadavs are aligned with the Samajwadi Party,the non-Yadavs are scattered. Mayawati is now targeting them. Mines Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha is being projected as the BSPs OBC face,in an attempt to win over the community.

n District BSP presidents have been asked to identify local leaders,particularly from backward castes,and constitute their Bhaichara committees. For the first time,each committee will have one member from SCs,who will be a BSP loyalist. In the past,the Bhaichara committees were formed by leaders sitting at the headquarters. The emphasis on backwards is new.

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Together,these steps constitute an attempt to consolidate the Bahujan Samaj which,according to Kanshi Ram,constitutes an overwhelming majority of the Indian society. Mayawati has also started giving responsibility in the organisation to old-timers. For example,Ram Achal Rajbhar,who was attached with the partys Uttarakhand unit,has been asked to take care of the Varanasi zone.

There is at least one group that has been left discomfited as Mayawati tries to retrace her steps to her core support base: her 60-odd upper caste MLAs who were the product of her Sarvajan formula.

However,Mayawati otherwise not known to brook failures moved quickly to reassure the MLAs that they would get the party ticket in the next Assembly elections and asked them to identify their post-delimitation constituencies. She also promised to ensure that their grievances and requests were promptly attended to by ministers and officers.

Mayawati has also quelled all speculation about revamping of the ministry. She has not removed a single minister,except Swami Prasad Maurya,whose term in the council ended a few months ago and who failed to win the LS election from Kushinagar.