Elections 2019 - The Explosive Battle For Uttar Pradesh

The state remains pivotal in determining who will form the next government at the centre

- Ajit Kumar Jha

There could have been no better photo-opportunity for the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal gathbandhan (alliance) in Uttar Pradesh than BSP supremo Mayawati sharing a stage with SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri on April 19, 24 years after the infamous Lucknow guest-house incident when the two parted company. The SP bastion voted on April 23, in the third phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, and prior to that BSP leader was in Mainpuri to canvass for Mulayam. Hailing Mulayam as the “asli, vastavik, janam jatiya pichhre varg ka leader (real, original, natural-born backward class leader)”, Mayawati called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “nakli, farzi (false, fraud) backward class leader”, accusing him of co-opting his Modh-Ganchi caste into the backward class list when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.

Mulayam doesn’t exactly need Mayawati to campaign for him in Mainpuri. The SP has won the constituency six times in a row, four times under Mulayam. With Yadavs making up almost 35 per cent of its voters, Rajputs 20 per cent and the Dalits, Brahmins, Shakyas and Muslims forming the other dominant groups, the BJP has never been able to win Mainpuri. Even during the 2014 Modi wave, Mulayam won his seat with a record margin.

What, then, is the significance of Mayawati campaigning for Mulayam in the SP pocket borough? “The Mayawati-Mulayam reunion is a historic moment aligning the leaders of two communities that have been oppressed for long,” says SP national secretary Abhishek Mishra. “The coming together of former rivals has led to the emergence of a powerful vikalp (alternative) in Uttar Pradesh.”