By some queer stroke of luck or may be design, Behenji nominated Bhim Rao Ambedkar to take on the SP from Lakhna in 2007. If politics is about perception and messaging, then Mayawati succeeded in doing precisely that by winning comfortable majority in the state and getting Ambedkar elected from Mulayam’s bastion.
Lakhna, on the borders of Chambal ravines, is a non-descript town 20 kilometres from Etawah. On an upswing after four years of Samajwadi Party rule since 2003, Mayawati was throwing a serious challenge to Mulayam Singh Yadav, even in his own backyard in Yadav dominated constituencies of central Uttar Pradesh.
By some queer stroke of luck or may be design, Behenji nominated Bhim Rao Ambedkar to take on the SP from Lakhna in 2007. If politics is about perception and messaging, then Mayawati succeeded in doing precisely that by winning comfortable majority in the state and getting Ambedkar elected from Mulayam’s bastion.
In 2018, when Mayawati fights, perhaps, the toughest political battle in decades, she has once picked B R Ambedkar from Lakhna to knit a strong narrative irrespective of the outcome of the polls.
There is a strong historic link to Ambedkar’s selection in 2018 Rajya Sabha elections. This history has been a part of Dalit narrative as it sought to carve a niche for itself through various strands of identity politics.
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