Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results 2022: From 206 in 2007 to 2 in 2022, how Mayawati’s star has fallen

Oh Mayawati, how your star has fallen.

By the time the day ends and the last vote is counted, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will be handed its worst defeat ever — the Election Commission shows that the party is only leading in two seats — in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

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Is this politics’ way of telling Mayawati her time is up? Is this the end of the road for the BSP?

The ‘Elephant’ flat lines

The 2022 election result has been the BSP’s worst performance to date. The EC trends show that while the BJP is romping home with 260 seats, the BSP leads only in two seats, with a vote share of 12.85 per cent.

These numbers are even worse than those of 2017 when the party won 19 seats and had a vote share of 22.3 per cent.
The 2017 results had come as a shock to ‘Behenji’, as she is called popularly; her party had managed to secure 80 seats in 2012.

Political analyst and scholar Sudha Pai in a report by The Print said, "With this vote percentage, this is a clear sign that the Jatavs are deserting the BSP. The BSP has not been doing well and is on the decline as it is facing an existential crisis."

The scholar went on to add that the voters now perceive Mayawati to be weak and unable to go up against the behemoths that are the BJP.

The expert won’t be off the mark on this point, as the years out of power haven’t been kind to Mayawati. She has had the heat of the central agencies bearing down on her. Moreover, her decision to not interact with the media and lack of campaigning — she carried out only 18 rallies this poll season — has led to her disconnect with the voters.

Another reason for her poor performance could be attributed to BJP’s development plank; the saffron party with its ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ has gained popularity with all castes, including the Dalit population of the state.

The rise of other Dalit groups such as those helmed by Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ has also stolen her sheen.

The BSP's poor performance in the UP Assembly elections in 2022 could be attributed to the fact that Mayawati carried out only 19 rallies in the state. AFP

A force to reckon with

Mayawati, a teacher-turned-politician from Badalpur village of Gautam Budh Nagar district, first rose to the limelight when she was appointed as chief minister in 1995.

A protégée of Kanshi Ram, her stay in power was short-lived then, but over the years she has been able to become chief minister of the populous state four times, albeit she served a full tenure only in 2007.

It was the 2007 Uttar Pradesh elections that got the media and the people talking about her with her famed strategy of 'social engineering'. Instead of aligning her party against upper-caste Hindus, she brought the two communities together, promising them both good governance and development.

Her tenure was riddled with a series of controversies, particularly over the constructions of monuments devoted to Dalit icons, including many to herself, apart from renaming of institutions, districts and schemes after them.

Since then, Mayawati has been in political wilderness; her trusted aides have jumped ship over the years and her grassroot organisational structure has weakened to a naught.

The 2022 Uttar Pradesh results is a clear sign that she no longer holds the clout she possessed earlier, but is it also an eulogy for Mayawati and her party?

With inputs from agencies

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