Mayawati's Muslim outreach: Another false move

Mayawati is reaching out to Muslims when she first needs to consolidate her Dalit support base, some of which is now with BJP and Congress

Mayawati's attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, signal her efforts to win over Uttar Pradesh's Muslims ahead of the 2024 general elections.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, which Kanshi Ram founded in 1984 for the emancipation of Dalits, is struggling for its political revival. Mayawati's move comes when sections of Muslims seem annoyed with the Samajwadi Party (SP), which they have traditionally supported since its formation in 1992. The minority community is irked with the SP as its chief, Akhilesh Yadav, chooses to be tightlipped on atrocities against Muslims.

However, it looks like an uphill task for the BSP, which dispensed with its core ideals to adopt soft Hindutva in the 2022 Assembly elections to embrace UP's Brahmins. As a Dalit thinker puts it, "Mayawati replaced Kanshi Ram with Jai Shree Ram." The BSP kicked off its election campaign from Ayodhya, and the party's general secretary, Satish Chandra Mishra, vowed to complete the construction of the Ram Mandir swiftly. The BSP cold-shouldered Muslims and didn't even try to connect to the Muslim community, which comprises 19–20 per cent of the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh.

The experiment of wooing Brahmins proved futile, as the upper-caste Hindus did not vote for the Dalit party. Muslims also frowned on the BSP. The BSP sank to one seat in an Assembly of 403 seats, and its vote share slipped from 22.24 per cent in 2017 to 12.81 per cent in 2022. Many believe that Mayawati's 'Brahmin experiment' split her core Dalit votes among other parties and that her party lost credibility among Muslims.

As part of its course correction, Mayawati recently denounced the BJP and RSS twice over Muslim issues. The BSP chief condemned the survey of madrasas conducted by the Yogi Adityanath government and termed the BJP's 'Pasmanda Muslim' outreach an "eyewash." In Uttar Pradesh's upcoming local body elections, the BJP has announced its decision to field Pasmanda Muslims, who are considered disadvantaged. Mayawati termed the BJP's outreach "new deceit" as the party's attitude towards the community was well known.

Mayawati opposed the Yogi government's move to conduct the survey and said that the UP government was interfering with madrasa operations at a time when non-government madrasas did not want to be a burden on the government.

The BSP also inducted Imran Masood, a well-known Muslim face of western Uttar Pradesh. Masood's influence, however, is limited to a few seats in the west UP. Naseemuddin Siddiqi, who brought together Muslims and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, left the BSP and is now with the Congress.

Mayawati is also seen as concerned about her core Dalit vote since Congress began restructuring. The Congress's new national president, Mallikarjun Kharge, and its UP chief, Brijlal Khabri, are both Dalits. After the appointment of two Dalits to the top post of the Congress, Mayawati attacked the grand old party.

The BSP chief wrote on social media that the Congress is an organisation that makes Dalits scapegoats in crises. "Throughout its history, Congress has always ignored underprivileged groups and their leader, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Dalit messiah," Mayawati said.

Evidently, Congress also set its sights on Dalit votes. Dalits were traditional voters for the Congress before the formation of the BSP. In the last few elections, a large section of non-Jatav Dalits swayed towards the saffron camp, and Jatav votes were also split between different parties. If the Congress emerges again in UP, Dalits might take shelter with it, which could further diminish the BSP in the coming future.

In the current political scenario, when the Sangh's communal agenda prevails, Mayawati should work on the ground to integrate the 21–22 per cent Dalits under the BSP umbrella. Despite this, the BSP chief had focused on Brahmins in the last Assembly election, which proved counterproductive, and now she has been trying to woo Muslims. Other communities, however, could only join the BSP if all Dalits joined it.

(Asad Rizvi is a Lucknow-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.