Drastic decline: On the BSP

In Indian democracy, if a ruling party does not perform according to the expectations of the electorate, the opposition always gets the opportunity to win back the support of the people, provided it works towards earning it. This is evident in the contrasting fortunes of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance and that of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), in Uttar Pradesh in the general election. The SP-Congress alliance took recourse to coherent messaging, targeting the Union government on issues related to protecting constitutional rights and freedoms and economic problems, while managing to stitch a new alliance that transcended the politics of narrow caste arithmetic reminiscent of the Mandal years. This helped it win 43 seats, boost its vote share and gain support from OBCs and Dalits. In contrast, the BSP’s vote share fell to 9.4% — a nearly four point drop from the 2022 Assembly elections — as even its loyal Jatav backers split their support between the three major political forces in the State. Other non-Jatav Dalits, OBC sections and the minorities (overwhelmingly in their case) endorsed the SP-Congress alliance.

The BSP, a party, which began as a movement led by Kanshi Ram, reached its apogee in the late 2000s after being part of a series of post-poll coalition governments before winning power on its own in a split polity in 2007. By this time, its ideology had also shifted from being a “bahujan” (a term connoting the subaltern) to that of a “sarvjan” party, a catch-all phrase for an alliance of contradictions in order to win a broad-based vote. In government, the BSP accorded dignity to the Dalit population in the State and engaged in a fervent politics of Dalit symbolism, but showed little gumption to address socio-economic issues through steps such as redistribution or enlightened governance. Out of power since 2012, the party has remained an anodyne force, with its leader Mayawati abjuring agitational politics and largely limiting her political messaging and activism to statements and press releases. Her party has retreated into a cocoon even as it has sought to be a spoiler in the parliamentary elections by promoting a political messaging that relied on a false equivalence of the BJP and the SP-Congress. After her defeat, Ms. Mayawati blamed EVMs, the weather and the lack of trust among Muslims, while still refusing to acknowledge her own lack of agency that has resulted in the BSP’s decline. To revive itself, the BSP can learn from the experiences of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi or even the fledgling Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) that have taken to ideological and agitational struggle to represent the interests of Dalits, allowing these parties to punch above their weight.