Chiefs apology

Mulayam Singh Yadav has sought the pardon of the Muslim community for associating with Kalyan Singh during the campaign for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In a statement issued Thursday,he admitted to taking the support of some galat tatva wrong elements,though all in a larger plan to keep the communal forces from seizing power. Arguing that this may have confused his traditional voters,he appended to the apology a recap of his heroic stand as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in the prelude to the demolition of the Babri Masjid,by which time the post was Kalyan Singhs.

The Samajwadi Partys takings at the Lok Sabha elections were so meagre that a first fallout was the brusque exit of Kalyan Singh. But Yadavs apology this week is perhaps part of a larger attempt to claim space in UPs reordered political landscape. First the BSPs social alliance in the 2007 assembly elections outflanked the SPs core votebank,and even cracked it. Then,in the Lok Sabha polls,the Congresss resurgence did not just have the Muslim vote begin to drift back to the national party; it also deprived the SP of the salience that comes with being the dominant opposition party in a state. Even thereafter,the SP has struggled to find its place in the political spectrum in its opposition to the Womens Reservation Bill,its walkout along with the RJD in Lok Sabha during a cut motion,and its support to the Left for the July 5 bandh.

The apology this week can be seen as part of this search for space. The reference to the 90s is a reminder of the polarised politics that gave the SP a stable corner from which to seek votes. But as the BJP struggles to revive its fortunes in UP,and as the Muslim rebuff to the Congress is shown to be ending,such reminders may remain academic. Identity politics is giving way to the politics of livelihood in UP,and on this the SP has not yet had anything to offer. In fact,its 2009 paranoia over the English language and use of computers showed it to be as out of step with the times as its embrace of Kalyan Singh.