“Tu hai ki nahi?” A well-liked track from a Bollywood film sparkles in my thoughts every time I consider Mayawati—a stalwart Dalit chief who gave hope to hundreds of thousands of downtrodden individuals in India, however now appears disinterested and disenchanted with electoral politics, for no seen motive. This election, for example, she ended her marketing campaign per week earlier than the ultimate part. This included the cancellation of scheduled rallies and packages. Some get together members gave an unsettling rationalization that “the marketing campaign has been executed wherever the get together was hopeful of successful elections.”
However why has this occurred?
Information from previous meeting elections reveals that Mayawati’s loyal vote financial institution in her dwelling state of Uttar Pradesh hasn’t shrunk a lot. Her loyal vote financial institution remains to be there and fairly intact (consult with the graphic beneath).
The BSP supremo, now in a non-valiant mode, was as soon as a frontrunner who reacted to each political growth. Her reactions, not like her counterparts, had been extra motion than phrases.
Nonetheless, it is fairly evident now that she is operating the get together on auto-pilot mode.
However is that this inactivity linked with age and well being? Or are there causes past?
The BSP supremo not too long ago put in her nephew, Akash Anand, as her successor, solely to sack him per week later. Anand, some mentioned, gave hope to the get together with preliminary photo-ops and initiatives (that by no means took off).
Mayawati, per week later, eliminated him, stating that he wants to achieve extra “maturity”—delivering a shocker to the political circles. Did Mayawati do that below some strain from the BJP? Congress and Samajwadi Get together have mentioned so.
Whereas Mayawati eliminated Akash, she gave the powers again to Anand Kumar, the previous’s father.
The BJP leaders, in response, mentioned that this was BSP’s inside matter.
No Marketing campaign, No Agenda
BSP slogans like “Tilak, Trishul aur Talwaar… and Hathi Nahi Ganesh, Brahma Vishnu Mahesh hain,” used to create ripples within the electoral scenes for many years, ever because the get together was based by Kanshi Ram.
For the previous three elections, there hasn’t been a preferred slogan. Individuals, even in Mayawati’s bastions of Ghaziabad and Noida, haven’t seen native models campaigning on a big scale. In some pockets, many do not even know the title of the candidates this time.
No Makes an attempt to Choose Up Fashionable-Day Campaigning
Surprisingly, the BSP is the one ‘massive get together’ within the fray with none particular social media technique in place. The get together, which will get round 20 p.c of votes in a state like Uttar Pradesh, solely has 84,000 Twitter followers and 1 lakh on Fb.
Its final Twitter publish got here on Might 2, a month in the past, whereas the elections had been nonetheless on. The final publish on Fb was on Might 20. Each handles usually are not even verified.
The get together has negligible or zero presence on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.
No Commercial Marketing campaign on TV
Not like previous years, the BSP was nowhere to be seen on tv advertisements, and the get together did not pay for commercials in massive newspapers.
Many could argue that this isn’t the primary time {that a} get together is diminishing. There have been many examples of nationwide and even state-level events being decimated to a couple seats.
However the case is just not so easy with BSP. The BSP’s loyal vote financial institution, many say, will nonetheless vote for BSP. The seat share of the get together has diminished, however the vote share is unbroken. Because of this Dalits nonetheless come out to punch the Elephant on the EVMs, but, the seats usually are not gained because the get together is not engaged on the much-required caste arithmetic in any respect.
The details and figures clearly recommend—BSP is just not lifeless. Nonetheless, its management’s intent to win elections is definitely nowhere to be seen.
