Have a quiet party

But there is another reason why the nations gaze will be drawn more irresistibly to UP on January 15. This year,Mayawati is the unofficial prime ministerial candidate of the yet-to-be Third Front. Pared down,it means the BSP chief is in the queue for the top job in Delhi and,more importantly,is seen to be there too.

While Mayawati has asserted her prime ministerial ambition several times over,it was the Left parties imprimatur on it during the trust vote last year that sealed it in the national imagination. The Third Front flounders. Left leaders,prime movers of the idea,have almost nuanced it out of reckoning. CPMs Prakash Karat describes it as a third alternative,CPIs D. Raja prefers political cooperation,while RSPs Abani Roy totally denies its pre-poll existence. But it has already powered Mayawati into the top league.

This thrusting of Mayawati into the prime ministerial stakes may have come a little too early for Mayawati and the BSP. If every political movement and party has a trajectory,the BSP is still on its way. It has yet to think through the dilemmas and sort out the difficult choices that come with the territory for a national party in a country as large and diverse as India. Today,the party is caught in a harsh and demanding spotlight it is unprepared for in terms of its organisational growth and political maturity.

Political importance has been thrust on other actors prematurely. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi grew into their jobs,as did Naveen Patnaik,and so,it is hoped,will Omar Abdullah. H.D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral found themselves at the right place at the right time. The BJP had its first shot at the Centre when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was still being described as the right man in the wrong party. But Mayawatis case is different.

It is not just that she was neither born into political power nor smoothly catapulted into the providential circumstance. As a Dalit leading a primarily Dalit party,Mayawati has had to claw her way from the systems darkest and most distant periphery towards its centre. The friction it has inevitably generated is still very raw.

In terms of numbers,the BSP has had an amazing run. The party that was formed in 1984 debuted in the Lok Sabha polls the same year,with both Mayawati and Kanshi Ram failing to get elected. It became the party with the majority in UP a little over two decades later,breaking the cycle of indecisive verdicts in the state. In the recent round of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh,Delhi,Jamp;K,Madhya Pradesh,and Rajasthan,the BSP increased its vote share everywhere,except in Jamp;K. It nearly tripled in Delhi and almost doubled in Rajasthan. Its seats increased in each state,again except in Jamp;K. In the run-up to Lok Sabha polls,senior SP leaders admit that without an alliance with the Congress,it could be advantage Mayawati again in UP.

But if power is also a moderator of positions,and if that is a necessary attribute of the powerful in a country as diverse as India,in Mayawatis case,the moderation has just begun. It is yet unstable,still incomplete.

Changes are afoot in the BSP,especially since its stunning conquest of UP in 2007. For one,a party that disdains the media,and justifiably boasts that it has made it big despite the chattering classes,is now calling many more press conferences. She still selects the questions that she will answer,but at the several press meets she has called in the capital after winning UP,on events of national importance ranging from the Supreme Court ruling on the creamy layer to the Indo-US nuclear deal,Mayawati has been less brusque,more relaxed.

The term manuwadi used to pepper the BSPs infrequent press releases and her speeches. Now the good word is sarvajan. Many argue the change is only tactical. But ever since early intimations of success in stitching a larger coalition in the run-up to the 2007 UP poll,the mellowing of the BSPs vocabulary is distinct.

The BSP used to split often. There were large-scale defections in 1995,1997 and 2003. One reason is that tickets to elections are bartered to outsiders who bear no long-term loyalty to the party. Another reason could be Mayawatis famed intolerance of any signs of independent thinking in the BSP. But the party has been relatively stable for the last few years and all the credit does not go to the anti-defection law. In UP power is the glue,but the case of the BSP in Rajasthan may be more telling. After the BSPs six MLAs voted for the Gehlot government in the recent confidence vote in Jaipur,reports of an angry Behenji were followed by reports of a patient Behenji,hearing out the Rajasthan MLAs and acquiescing to their decision. As the BSP spreads to other states,Mayawati may find it more difficult to retain her tight grip. Significantly,in Rajasthan,the BSP presence jumped from a paltry two seats in 1998 and 2003 to a crucial six in a delicately balanced House.

Yet,at a fundamental level,a powerful exceptionalism still sustains and invigorates the BSP. Its a deeply-felt sense of difference. We are not like the BJP-Congress,BSP workers will tell you. The BSP is a mission not a party,they say.

It is sometimes a secret mission. During the last round of assembly elections,a senior BSP minister in UP confirmed to this paper the existence of party spies or observers who tail BSP candidates in all states and send daily reports to Lucknow.

The question is this: What sort of redefinition will it take to drain the exceptionalism that drives the BSP but isolates it too? And can the BSP survive the redefinition?

This birthday and even the impending Lok Sabha election are minor milestones. Mayawati has surpassed the achievements of her mentor,but she must know that the BSPs journey still lies ahead.

vandita.mishraexpressindia.com