:As frenzied cries of “ Chalega hathi uregi dhool , na chalegi cycle na rahega phool ” [Elephant will march ahead, neither cycle will run nor flower will bloom], rent the air, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati’s helicopter touches down at Mangupur on the outskirts of Moradabad. She climbs on to the stage to a rapturous reception.
Ms. Mayawati takes the microphone and, within minutes, gets down to business: wooing the Muslims without whose support her bid to return as chief minister for another term will remain unfulfilled.
“The Samajwadi Party (SP) presides over an anarchic, lawless jungle raj in which women are unsafe and the poor are oppressed,” she says, adding, “Remember Muzaffarnagar (where Muslims took the brunt of communal riots in 2013) and Dadri (where a Muslim was lynched to death for allegedly possessing beef).”
The SP is a divided house, she stresses: “Mulayam Singh’s love for his son has humiliated Shivpal Yadav. The two factions will cut into each other’s votes. So I urge the minorities not to vote for the SP as they will help the BJP to win. The SP base vote of Yadavs is divided whereas the BSP base vote of Dalits is intact. So vote for the BSP and keep the BJP out.” The BJP is “interfering in personal laws”, she continues, referring to the party’s efforts to put the Uniform Civil Code and the triple talaq issue on the electoral agenda.
Popular poll promises
But none of these issues seem to get the traction her poll promises seem to get. These include putting the SP’s ‘mafia’ behind bars; security for young women; providing a mid-day meal of milk, eggs, fruit and biscuits for schoolchildren “instead of the rubbish doled out now”; better prices for crops; bank loan waivers up to ₹1 lakh for farmers; protection for traders and a commission to look into their problems; and a commitment to post women government servants in the same place as their husbands. The biggest cheers are reserved for her promise to restore land patta s to the landless “whose land has been unlawfully grabbed during the SP regime, and to punish the guilty”.
The reason for the lack of enthusiasm about issues relating to Muslims becomes apparent from the audience. Even though the BSP has given six of the 10 Assembly seats in the minority-dominated Moradabad-Amroha belt to Muslims, there are very few members of the community in this vast sea of surging humanity.
Outside the venue is a small group of Muslims: all of them the BSP’s workers of many years’ standing. One of them, Mushtaqeem Quereshi, indignantly says that all Muslims do not necessarily wear caps or grow beards.
But a rough estimate would suggest that no more than around 10% of those who have shown up are Muslims.
Hasan Ali, who is standing alone outside, says the vast majority of Muslims is rooting for the SP. This is repeated by Muslims in villages in the vicinity, too.
‘Dalits not safe under BJP’
With an eye to her core vote, some of which strayed to the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014, Ms. Mayawati talks of Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderababd and the killing of Dalits in Una, Gujarat, stressing, “Dalits and MBCs (Most Backward Classes) are not safe under a BJP regime.”
She is also clearly aware of the sort of criticism that her political rivals have been levelling at her. In her speech, she says, “I want to make it clear that if I come to power, then I will not erect any more statues — because that task is finished.” Clearly, from now on, portraits of Dalit heroes — Jyotiba Phule, Narayan Guru, Shauji Maharaj, B.R. Ambedkar and Kanshiram — and the sale of Dalit literature at rally venues will suffice.
