Mayawati's pan-India dream bites the dust : TOI

NEW DELHI: Bahujan Samaj Party's fortunes continue to plunge since its Lok Sabha debacle in its UP backyard, with the party failing to make an impression in Haryana and Maharashtra.
It has barely won one MLA in Haryana and drawn a cipher in Maharashtra. These states were firmly on Mayawati's radar when she romped UP in May 2007 and set her eyes on taking the Dalit movement across the country.

It is a critical development for BSP which, while nurturing the dream of expanding nationally for a longtime, saw the post-victory period as the best for its pan-India growth.

Maharashtra and Haryana were seen as the best turfs to encash popularity. The former has a history of Dalit movements, starting with Ambedkar who is the foremost in the BSP pantheon. Kanshi Ram failed to make a dent in Maharashtra but Mayawati felt it was time to take the party to another level in the state.

The 2009 LS results proved that Mayawati's appeal had subsided following its two-year rule in UP, as it failed to even match its 2004 role of spoiler when it ruined Congress-NCP's chances in Vidarbha.

Haryana ranked even higher on party's priority, if only because the state has 19% Dalit population. Mayawati, in the aftermath of her 2007 victory glow, played her cards shrewdly, giving a clarion call that "Haryana needs a non-Jat chief minister".

The gambit was to rally non-Jats around SCs against the socially dominant Jats. With Bhajan Lal fading from the scene, the attempt appeared even more astute.

The party began to flounder post-LS polls dismal performance in UP. While she got 15% votes in LS in Haryana, it did not convert to any win. That it has failed to cross the threshold even in the assembly elections where smaller constituencies make winning an easier proposition is a grim reminder of its fading fortunes. Its voteshare has fallen to a pathetic 6.7%.

Now, BSP is reconciled to focusing its energies on UP, with its idea of growing outside UP virtually an abandoned dream.

The limits of Mayawati riding her appeal post-UP polls became clear in November 2008 when four key states -- Delhi, Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan -- went to polls. With Mayawati-for-PM slogan renting the air, it was felt that her winning over of upper castes could work her magic outside UP too. She failed in her first objective of cutting into Congress votes to deny it victory in big states -- MP and Rajasthan -- and then to become indispensable for Congress in smaller ones -- Chhattisgarh and and Delhi.

Since then, the LS polls and the fresh assembly polls have confirmed that BSP would rather focus on UP and consolidate its withering base.