Mayawati proves her mettle in Uttar Pradesh

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

From a nondescript lawyer to one among the hangers-on of BSP chief Kanshi Ram to a being a primary contender for the top job in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati has come a long way.

Her single-handed election campaign in Uttar Pradesh has proved beyond doubt that this 44-year old dalit woman is the politician to watch.

And this was the first time that she did not seek the assistance of Kanshi Ram, yet could take her party's tally to 99, way ahead of its 1996 figure of 69.

"In fact when she began campaigning for the present election, her party's tally stood at just 50 as 19 had defected to support the BJP," a close aide pointed out.

When Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav struck a deal with BSP for external support to his government in 1994, it was Kanshi Ram who calling the shots in the party.

In fact the BSP chief took everyone by surprise by propelling Mayawati to the hot seat in UP, after he pulled the rug from under Mulayam's feet and elicited Bhartiya Janata Party's support to run the first ever BSP government in India's most populous state.

Kanshi Ram used to say: "Mayawati wanted to become the district magistrate, but I always told her that one day I will take you to a pedestal from where you will control the destiny of DMs; and here you are, I have made her the Maharani of Uttar Pradesh."

At 39, she became the youngest Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

Since then, there has been no looking back.

Even though the first stint lasted only about four-and-a-half months with BJP withdrawing support, she staged a comeback -- and that too once again with BJP's support two years later following yet another hung assembly.

The recently concluded Uttar Pradesh polls has proved beyond doubt that she has outgrown the shadow of Kanshi and can single handedly influence the electorate.

While every other political party had detailed its top-rung leaders from different corners of the country to add muscle to their respective campaigns, Mayawati was busy scaling the length and breadth of the state all alone.

Her political pragmatism became visible in her selection of party candidates, when she fielded as many as 82 Muslims together with a large number of upper caste Brahmins and Thakurs.

Evidently, it was aimed at proving that she was leaping out of the strictly dalit mould that her mentor Kanshi Ram had cast for her.

And with the impressive and responsive audience she drew at most of her meetings, it was amply visible that now she was a leader in her own right.

Here, she also chose to remould 'bahujan samaj' by defining it mean the larger section of society.

Unmindful of being labelled as 'unscrupulous and corrupt', she successfully carried out her agenda of expanding the base of her party each time she rode on to power.

"After all, BSP does not have the support of industrialists and the business houses; and everybody needs finances to run a political party," was her flat reply a charge that party tickets were given to certain candidates for a heavy price.

Even though the BJP helped her ascend the throne, she has consistently displayed utter contempt for the saffron party and its manuvaadi approach.

However, over the recent past, her definition of manuvaad had changed.

"By manuvaad I do not mean every one who was born upper caste, but anyone who discriminating against people belonging to the lower and downtrodden castes," Mayawati said repeatedly at her various public meetings.

Minus her brazen ways and quirks, she is widely admired for one thing -- setting the fear of God in the otherwise all-powerful and indomitable bureaucracy of the state.

The past year and a half has also seen Mayawati undergo a change in appearance.

From the oiled plait in the eighties to a shorter pony-tail in the nineties, Mayawati chose to turn a 'boy-cut' in the new millennium.

"My new hair style is only for convenience, since longer hair take so much more time to maintain," she said.

That in short showcases one of strongest character traits of Mayawati, which has seen her zoom to the top in such a short time.

http://www.rediff.com/election/2002/feb/25_upr_shar_rep_2.htm