… Then Mayawati quietly retreated and BJP prospered and she was also accused of being BJP’s B team and contesting elections only to divide anti-BJP votes.
Today is the birthday of BSP Chief Mayawati.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is celebrating the birthday of its supremo Mayawati in a grand manner across Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. This is going to happen after a gap of three years due to COVID. The main function will be held at the party office in capital Lucknow, where he is expected to release the 18th edition of his book ‘A Travelogue of My Struggle Ridden Life and BSP Movement’ along with the party’s mission calendar for the 2024 parliamentary elections. Will do
A large number of party workers are expected to gather at the office on Mall Avenue in Lucknow. Along with this, instructions have been issued to all district units to celebrate his birthday publicly. The four-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is turning 66 on January 15.
Revival of BSP!
The idea behind celebrating Mayawati’s birthday with full grandeur is to revive her as a big national leader and change the sinking fortunes of the BSP.
Once considered an up-and-coming leader who was expected to play a major role in national politics, her fortunes with her party slowly began to deteriorate after the BSP’s electoral defeat in the 2012 assembly elections. Things went so far that the BSP symbolically contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and got only one seat.
BSP from full majority to downfall
The decline of the BSP as a political force was rapid. After winning 206 seats in 2007, it was reduced to just 89 seats in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly. In 2007 BSP got absolute majority. The victory enabled Mayawati to complete her full five-year term in the chief minister’s office for the first time. Since then, the BSP has been on the decline and the BJP has eaten into its Dalit vote bank. The BSP declined with the rise of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh politics. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the BJP won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats.
While the BSP won 20 of these seats in 2009, the BJP jumped from 10 to 71. The BJP’s rise continued in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections after coming to power with a thumping majority of 312 seats, while the BSP went down further and could win only 19 seats.
The BSP saw a temporary revival in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. At that time it contested elections as an ally of the Samajwadi Party. However, the alliance soon broke down as the Samajwadi Party realized that it had paid the price for joining hands with the corruption-tainted BSP. The SP, despite being a major partner in the alliance, managed to win only five seats as against 10 for the BSP.
Allegations of corruption and ticket selling
One of the primary reasons for the downfall of Mayawati, once seen as a potential Prime Minister of the country, was the allegations of corruption against her. Born in a poor Dalit family and a primary teacher in a government school, BSP founder Late Kanshi Ram saw and groomed her as a great leader.
Today he is considered one of the richest politicians of India. The methodology adopted by him was unique and interesting. Her birthday was always celebrated in grand style and she accepted only cash as gifts. All the office bearers of the party and the leaders seeking party tickets were instructed to gift him a large sum of money. Similarly, industrialists and the business community were also instructed to make cash payments on his birthday.
Mayawati honestly used to pay income tax on this amount and the rest of the money used to go into her bank accounts as white money. The BSP is still accused of selling its tickets during elections, especially during elections to other states, the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council. His alleged greed for money didn’t stop with cash gifts on birthdays. He was accused of indulging in corruption and taking commission in all government tenders while in power.
So did Mayawati retreat out of fear?
However, she managed to evade arrest. Mayawati cited the fear of central agencies like CBI and ED as one of the reasons for marginalizing BSP in Uttar Pradesh. In fact, he is afraid that the corruption cases against him may be reopened and he may be arrested.
The fear of arrest meant that Mayawati quietly retreated and the BJP prospered. Now he was also accused of becoming the B team of BJP and contesting elections only to divide anti-BJP votes. This was also seen in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
real twist in the story
It is not yet known whether she will be given a cash bath once again during her birthday celebrations on Sunday, but preparations are underway to enshrine her as a living goddess and an incarnation of Gautama Buddha.
The occasion will feature special songs recorded by renowned Bollywood singers like Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher and popular Punjabi singer Prince. These songs will be played in the party offices located in all the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
Mayawati coming out of her political slumber and suddenly becoming active is also being seen as indirectly helping the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by splitting the proposed opposition unity and anti-BJP votes.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author. The views and facts given in this article do not represent the stand of NewsNCR.)
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