For almost three decades, the Bahujan Samaj Party has been a dominant player in Uttar Pradesh. With the Jatav group constituting its core, the party united all the state's Dalits with the aim of using politics to break the caste system. Even though the BSP failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat during the recent general elections, it managed to capture 20% of the vote, evidence that its key constituency had thrown their weight behind the party.
But in recent weeks, something has changed. The BSP's nucleus – the Jatavs who constitute more than half of the population of the scheduled castes in UP – seems to be crumbling. This is not only because they are being wooed by other parties but also because many are disquieted by the tactics adopted by Mayawati to capture political power. The changes are not very obvious but they are getting more perceptible at the grassroots.
Take, for instance, the situation in Ambedkar Nagar. On Friday, when the nation was celebrating Independence Day, Ram Samhar, a former district coordinator of Ambedkar Nagar and key BSP leader in the district, resigned from primary membership of the party. “With a heavy heart, I am writing this letter to you because Bahujan Samaj Party has deviated from its core agenda,” he told BSP state president Ram Achal Rajbhar in a letter. A district coordinator is a crucial post in the structure of the highly centralised, cadre-based BSP.
Cradle of Dalit politics
The letter is significant because Ram Samhar was an important grassroots leader of the BSP in a district that has always been regarded as the cradle of Ambedkarite politics in UP. Dalits constitute nearly 28% of the district’s population, and almost 90% of them are Jatavs. Mayawati herself belongs to the Jatav group, as did the late Kanshi Ram, the founder of the BSP. So does Ram Samhar. It was in this district – called Akbarpur until 1995 – that Dalit leader Ramji Ram broke new ground by winning a parliamentary election way back in 1967, much before the BSP was formed, contesting on the ticket of BR Ambedkar’s Republican Party of India. Ambedkar Nagar served as Mayawati’s launching pad, electing her to the Lok Sabha three times.
Ram Samhar first spoke out against Mayawati's decision to take a new direction about two months before the party lost power in UP to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in early 2012. Soon after the result, he was marginalised in the party. “On 15 August 2012, I wrote a detailed letter to the state president enumerating all the factors which had led to the weakening of the Bahujan Samaj movement,” he said. “But nothing happened and I continued to work for the party. But now it seems Mayawati cares for upper castes and not for Bahujan. She wants power but has done nothing to accomplish the task set for the BSP by Saheb", as Kanshi Ram was fondly called by his followers.
As for his future course of action, Ram Samhar seems to admire a little-known political outfit, Bahujan Mukti Party. “Though BMP is a weak party, as a movement it is gaining strength," he said. "The political classes it organises among Dalits are attended in large number by the original cadres of the BSP. To a person interested in fighting for an agenda set out by Saheb and Dr. Ambedkar, there cannot be a better platform than the BMP in UP.”
The BMP was founded on December 6, 2012, as the political wing of All India Backward (SC, ST, OBC) and Minority Communities Employees’ Federation. Ironically, BAMCEF had been established in early the 1970s by Kanshi Ram. But after he formed the BSP in 1984, BAMCEF severed its ties with him. It is now headed by Waman Meshram, who was once a close aide of Kanshi Ram and who has been the guiding spirit behind the BMP.
Big ambitions
“At the moment we are forming booth-level committees in many states including Uttar Pradesh and holding classes to educate Dalits, backwards and minorities politically,” ZS Kashyap, the BMP’s working president, told Scroll.in. He said that the party aims to field candidates in all the UP assembly seats when the state goes to the polls in 2017.
Of course, BSP leader Mayawati is not unfamiliar with challenges of this sort. A member of the party since its inception, she has helped steer it through a number of critical phases. Over a decade ago, for example, when Kanshi Ram identified her as his chosen successor, a section of the party leaders – most of them non-Jatav Dalit contemporaries of the BSP founder – opposed the move. But Mayawati had the unqualified support of most Jatav leaders at that time. This proved critical as she guided the party through a period of turbulence and ultimately led it to a landslide victory in the 2007 assembly election in the state.
But as she started leaning a little too heavily on Brahmin leaders in particular and non-Jatavs in general, disenchantment began to simmer in the party. After she lost power in 2012, the discontent started to become pronounced, though it still remained under check.
Barriers are broken
Today, the barriers have broken. Jatavs in several parts of UP are showing clear shift in their loyalty. In some western pockets, they have clearly moved in favour of the BJP. Take the case of Moradabad’s Akbarpur Chedri village, which was in the news for all of July as the Sangh Parivar tried to pit local Dalits, most of them Jatavs, against the dominant Muslims over a in a dispute about a loudspeaker being mounted on a temple. Until recently the Jatavs of this village were hard-core supporters of the BSP. But now, almost all of them have become pro-BJP.
“Almost all BJP leaders came here to help us, but where is Behenji?" asked Vijay Singh, a Jatav resident of this village, using the term of affection by which Mayawati is known. Over a dozen other villagers there nodded in approval, as Singh explained why the Jatavs of the village had shifted their loyalty to the BJP.
For now, there is no evidence that the BSP is even taking part in these intense grassroots debates among those whose support the party so confidently drew on during the last elections.
But in recent weeks, something has changed. The BSP's nucleus – the Jatavs who constitute more than half of the population of the scheduled castes in UP – seems to be crumbling. This is not only because they are being wooed by other parties but also because many are disquieted by the tactics adopted by Mayawati to capture political power. The changes are not very obvious but they are getting more perceptible at the grassroots.
Take, for instance, the situation in Ambedkar Nagar. On Friday, when the nation was celebrating Independence Day, Ram Samhar, a former district coordinator of Ambedkar Nagar and key BSP leader in the district, resigned from primary membership of the party. “With a heavy heart, I am writing this letter to you because Bahujan Samaj Party has deviated from its core agenda,” he told BSP state president Ram Achal Rajbhar in a letter. A district coordinator is a crucial post in the structure of the highly centralised, cadre-based BSP.
Cradle of Dalit politics
The letter is significant because Ram Samhar was an important grassroots leader of the BSP in a district that has always been regarded as the cradle of Ambedkarite politics in UP. Dalits constitute nearly 28% of the district’s population, and almost 90% of them are Jatavs. Mayawati herself belongs to the Jatav group, as did the late Kanshi Ram, the founder of the BSP. So does Ram Samhar. It was in this district – called Akbarpur until 1995 – that Dalit leader Ramji Ram broke new ground by winning a parliamentary election way back in 1967, much before the BSP was formed, contesting on the ticket of BR Ambedkar’s Republican Party of India. Ambedkar Nagar served as Mayawati’s launching pad, electing her to the Lok Sabha three times.
Ram Samhar first spoke out against Mayawati's decision to take a new direction about two months before the party lost power in UP to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in early 2012. Soon after the result, he was marginalised in the party. “On 15 August 2012, I wrote a detailed letter to the state president enumerating all the factors which had led to the weakening of the Bahujan Samaj movement,” he said. “But nothing happened and I continued to work for the party. But now it seems Mayawati cares for upper castes and not for Bahujan. She wants power but has done nothing to accomplish the task set for the BSP by Saheb", as Kanshi Ram was fondly called by his followers.
As for his future course of action, Ram Samhar seems to admire a little-known political outfit, Bahujan Mukti Party. “Though BMP is a weak party, as a movement it is gaining strength," he said. "The political classes it organises among Dalits are attended in large number by the original cadres of the BSP. To a person interested in fighting for an agenda set out by Saheb and Dr. Ambedkar, there cannot be a better platform than the BMP in UP.”
The BMP was founded on December 6, 2012, as the political wing of All India Backward (SC, ST, OBC) and Minority Communities Employees’ Federation. Ironically, BAMCEF had been established in early the 1970s by Kanshi Ram. But after he formed the BSP in 1984, BAMCEF severed its ties with him. It is now headed by Waman Meshram, who was once a close aide of Kanshi Ram and who has been the guiding spirit behind the BMP.
Big ambitions
“At the moment we are forming booth-level committees in many states including Uttar Pradesh and holding classes to educate Dalits, backwards and minorities politically,” ZS Kashyap, the BMP’s working president, told Scroll.in. He said that the party aims to field candidates in all the UP assembly seats when the state goes to the polls in 2017.
Of course, BSP leader Mayawati is not unfamiliar with challenges of this sort. A member of the party since its inception, she has helped steer it through a number of critical phases. Over a decade ago, for example, when Kanshi Ram identified her as his chosen successor, a section of the party leaders – most of them non-Jatav Dalit contemporaries of the BSP founder – opposed the move. But Mayawati had the unqualified support of most Jatav leaders at that time. This proved critical as she guided the party through a period of turbulence and ultimately led it to a landslide victory in the 2007 assembly election in the state.
But as she started leaning a little too heavily on Brahmin leaders in particular and non-Jatavs in general, disenchantment began to simmer in the party. After she lost power in 2012, the discontent started to become pronounced, though it still remained under check.
Barriers are broken
Today, the barriers have broken. Jatavs in several parts of UP are showing clear shift in their loyalty. In some western pockets, they have clearly moved in favour of the BJP. Take the case of Moradabad’s Akbarpur Chedri village, which was in the news for all of July as the Sangh Parivar tried to pit local Dalits, most of them Jatavs, against the dominant Muslims over a in a dispute about a loudspeaker being mounted on a temple. Until recently the Jatavs of this village were hard-core supporters of the BSP. But now, almost all of them have become pro-BJP.
“Almost all BJP leaders came here to help us, but where is Behenji?" asked Vijay Singh, a Jatav resident of this village, using the term of affection by which Mayawati is known. Over a dozen other villagers there nodded in approval, as Singh explained why the Jatavs of the village had shifted their loyalty to the BJP.
For now, there is no evidence that the BSP is even taking part in these intense grassroots debates among those whose support the party so confidently drew on during the last elections.
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