In UP push, Mayawati’s new playbook: upping rallies for BSP faces, all-community outreach, targeting BJP

Deviating from her past template of “limited field exposure” seen by many as one of the factors for the BSP’s decline since 2014, Mayawati has been looking to step up her campaign in every Lok Sabha seat in UP.

In the past she used to address joint rallies at a common venue in support of her party’s candidates from several seats of that region. This time, however, she has been holding rallies for individual candidates too. Her nephew and party national coordinator Akash Anand has also pitched in, with both of them addressing 13 rallies each across UP till Monday.

In the first phase involving eight seats in western UP, Mayawati addressed five rallies and Akash held meetings in two constituencies, including the Nagina seat skipped by the former.

For the eight seats that went to polls in second phase, both Mayawati and Akash addressed five rallies each.

For the 10 seats in the third phase, for which campaigning ended on May 5, Mayawati addressed rallies in three seats including Agra and the SP bastions of Mainpuri and Badaun. Akash addressed rallies in Agra and Hathras.

On May 4, Mayawati addressed a meeting in the Dalit-dominated Agra seat, where she stressed on the need for unity between Jatavs and non-Jatav Dalits.

While Jatavs are considered to be the BSP’s core base, a section of non-Jatav Dalits is known to support the BJP. Dalits account for 21% of UP’s population, of whom 54% are Jatavs.

At her rally in Agra, where the BSP has fielded a Jatav candidate Pooja Amrohi, Mayawati said she has fielded leaders from various Scheduled Caste (SC) groups in reserved seats. She said in Agra’s mayoral poll last year her party had fielded a woman leader from Valmiki (non-Jatav) community.

“In the adjoining SC-reserved Hathras Lok Sabha seat, our party has fielded a candidate from Dhangar community,” she said, adding that the BSP has also nominated a Brahmin candidate Ram Niwas Sharma from the Fatehpur Sikri constituency.

In her first rally this election that she addressed in Maharashtra’s Nagpur on April 11, Mayawati reached out to the Muslim voters by assuring them that when her party comes to power the “persecution of Muslims happening for the past several years will come to an end”.

On April 14, Mayawati addressed a rally in Saharanpur in support of the party candidates from the Saharanpur and Kairana seats. She told the gathering that whenever her party fields Muslim faces the Congress or other Opposition party too fields nominees from the minority community. “Now, too, Congress has fielded Muslim candidate (Imran Masood) but it knows that he will not win because the Congress has no other votes,” she said.

In Saharanpur, the BSP has fielded a local leader Majid Ali.

Holding that the BSP’s support base includes Dalits along with Muslims, Mayawati claimed that Majid would get votes of the Kshatriya (Thakur) community too because the party has fielded a Kshatria leader (Sripal) from the adjoining Kairana seat.

Mayawati appealed to the Muslim voters to “not split their votes and rally round the BSP”. “If Muslim votes get divided and even its small fraction goes to Congress, that will benefit the BJP directly. And if you want to defeat BJP, you should support the BSP candidate fully,” she said.

The BSP supremo also sought to tap into the perceived resentment among a section of Kshatriyas against the BJP in western UP, appealing for “bhaichara (brotherhood) between Muslims and Kshatriyas” too, adding that the Muslim community in Kairana should back the BSP candidate to “strengthen this bhaichara”.

At her rally on the same day in Muzaffarnagar, which was roiled by riots in 2013, Mayawati said, “Bhaichara developed between Jats and Muslims here over the years was broken during the Samajwadi Party regime.”

She said she has given ticket to a candidate from the Prajapati samaj (OBC) in Muzaffarnagar. Underlining that some Assembly segments of the neighbouring Bijnor Lok Sabha seat are in Muzaffarnagar district, she said she has given the Bijnor ticket to a Jat candidate (Vijender Singh) to maintain “bhaichara between Jats and Muslims”.

Mayawati also said it was her “dilli tamanna (deep wish)” to field a Muslim face in Muzaffarnagar, but no one from the community agreed to contest since other parties, including the SP and the BJP, have fielded the Jat candidates. She also said that to give representation to the Muslim community the BSP has fielded a local Muslim, Maulana Jamil Ahmed, from the neighbouring Haridwar seat in Uttarakhand.

On April 15, addressing a rally in Moradabad, where the BSP has also fielded a Muslim nominee (Mohammad Irfan), Mayawati targeted the SP for not fielding a minority face. “In Moradabad, where Muslim population is highest, SP has given ticket to a non-Muslim candidate (Ruchi Veera). This is the culture of SP.”

The BSP chief thus tried to cash in on the bruised sentiments among a section of local Muslims who were said to be upset with the SP over denial of ticket to its sitting MP S T Hasan.

Meanwhile, at a rally in Pilibhit, Mayawati targeted the BJP and RSS as well as PM Modi on the free ration scheme. “I want to tell you this namak (salt) is not Modi’s. There is no meharbani (kindness) of Modi. The tax public pays, with that money you are being given namak, dal, chawal and atta. This is from your own tax money.”

Without mentioning Bhim Army founder and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad, who is contesting from the Nagina seat, Mayawati sought to caution the Dalit voters. She alleged that the BSP’s opponents like the Congress and BJP have joined hands to form various organisations to cut into the BSP’s Dalit vote base in the elections. “We are seeing this in Nagina,” she said, charging that the aim of such outfits was not to win polls but to damage the BSP’s prospects.

In recent months, Mayawati has often drawn criticism from the Opposition camp for attacking it and sparing the BJP. The BSP was even accused of allegedly playing the role of “the BJP’s B-team”.

A BSP leader said, “The party leadership is running a rigorous campaign to win the Lok Sabha seats and maintain the party’s significance in national politics. Seeking to increase the BSP’s vote share, it wants to boost the party’s prospects in the 2027 UP Assembly polls too, which is our main goal.”

In the 403-member UP Assembly, the BSP’s tally plunged from 19 seats in the 2017 polls to just 1 in the 2022 elections. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BSP had drawn a blank in the state in 2014 but won 10 seats in 2019 when it fought in alliance with the SP.