Mayawati’s diatribe against Congress a bid for hard bargain

LUCKNOW: On the eve of the assembly elections in MP, Rajasathan and Chhattisgarh, a frontal attack by BSP chief Mayawati on the beleaguered Congress is being seen as her bid for a hard bargain for larger seats in three election-bound states. Mayawati is a hard bargainer as was witnessed when in 1996 assembly elections in the undivided UP, it had given just 125 seats to the Congress and BSP contested in 300 seats. What impact will it have on UP will, however, be known only after a final decision on pacts in these states has been taken.

Mayawati described the grand old party as castiest and communal which was working overtime to eliminate other parties. This was her second assault on Congress in less than a fortnight. In her previous direct diatribe, she had said that Congress was equally responsible for escalating fuel prices, as it was UPA government which had lifted control in 2014.

As the elections in the three states are drawing closer, Mayawati might follow the Karnataka model of allying with regional parties and nibbling into the votes of the Congress and harming it. In Karnataka, the BSP had tied up with the JD(S) and not only increased its vote percentage there, but for the first time it got one of candidate elected to the assembly who is now a minister in the Kumaraswamy government. Now, even Congress leaders feel that had the BSP not contested there separetly or allied with their party, it would have been in better position .

In Gujarat elections also, if the Congress failed to upstage BJP, it was the BSP factor behind. The Congress lost 20 seats in Gujarat with a margin of 2000 votes and in these seats, the BSP got more than 2000 votes in every constituency.

In UP also , the BSP was eliminated out of the parliamentary map of the state by failing to win a single seat out of 80 in 2014 general elections ,but it had succeeded in retaining nearly 21 per cent votes. Same is in the 2017 assembly elections ,the Dalit dominated party, had registered a record low in recent years by dropping to just 19 seats out of 81,but again it marshaled it had a tight grip over of captive vote bank of 21per cent.

Then in the third test of commanding her vote bank and having the capability to transfer it to any party , Mayawati brought smiles on the face of a wilted Opposition , when with her support the Samajwadi Party defeated a mighty BJP in all four a by elections in the state and reignited the hopes of a grand alliance against the BJP in 2019 general elections .

Since this turn point of BJP’s miserable defeat in the four by elections and Mayawati’s command over her committed vote bank, most of the parties are running after her for an electoral pact. If the SP has buried its 23 – year old political enmity with it , the Congress too is keen for an electoral pact with it in the three election bound states to garner Dalit and tribal votes en mass and then to replicate it in the next general elections. She has already tied up with Ajit Jogi's party in Chhattisgarh and if she sticks to her strategy, may go with smaller parties in MP and Rajasthan to corner Congress.

The echo of Maywati’s fresh attack on Congress can be heard in UP politics also where the BSP is in a pivotal position, where three parties BSP, Congress and the Samajwadi Party are burning midnight oil for a grand alliance to halt the saffron march in this state only and deprive it of second term at Centre. However, sources in both SP and the BSP are confident of their impregnable alliance for the 2019 though both are not sure of the space and seats for the Congress . In order to mount pressure on the Congress, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had also hinted that the Congress as a national party should take a lead with magnanimity to form a big platform against the BJP.

As of now, the mood in the BSP camp is indicative that before the grand alliance for 2019 general elections, the Opposition will have to pass an acid test for the same in three electionbound states.