'Mayawatiji no more controls the bahujan vote in UP.'
'In this election more than 40 per cent of the BSP's core voters blessed the SP without the SP even asking for it.'
R K Chaudhary, a four time former Bahujan Samaj Party, who switched allegiance to Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, won the Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidated and former Union minister of state for housing and urban affairs Kaushal Kishore by more than 70,000 votes.
"2024 elections in a way is a watershed moment given the way how the PDAs have moved towards the SP," Chaudhary tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.
What's the reason behind the SP's and Congress's spectacular performance in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections?
Our 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh was no doubt a landslide for the SP. In Uttar Pradesh we reinvented ourselves by following in the footsteps of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Kanshi Ramji.
By forging the PDA (Peechda meaning backward; Dalit and Alpsankhyak meaning the minorities) alliance in the state, the SP has underlined that the underprivileged, the backward and the minorities, which have till now been systemically deprived of their just rights because of the opportunities enjoyed by the upper castes and upper classes, will now demand and get their just rights.
The PDA formation will ensure that the strata of Indian society that have been kept away from levers of powers and the fruits of development that such power structures get entitled to will also start participating and claiming their just and Constitutional rights on these power structures.
Now that the INDIA bloc, which fought the 2024 election on the plank of saving the Constitution, on the issue of justice for the PDA, which combined together forms the majority of India's population, and has tasted electoral success, these entrenched power structures will definitely be challenged and those who have been systemically kept away from it will start getting their dues.
When Kanshi Ramji was alive the slogan we (R K Chaudhary is one of the founding members of the Bahujan Samaj Party founded by the late Kanshi Ram) gave was 'Jo bahujan ki baat karega, woh desh pe raj karega (those who talk about the rights of the backwards and the oppressed will be the rightful choice of the people to rule India)'.
Now that Kanshi Ramji is no more, the slogan that is winning the hearts of the people is: 'Jo PDA ki baat karega, woh desh pe raj karega (those who talk about the rights of the Peechda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak, that is the PDA, will be the rightful choice of the people to rule India).'
The other slogan we gave then was 'Baba (Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar) tera mission adhura, Kanshi Ram karenge poora (Kanshi Ram, the Dalit leader who founded the BSP will complete Dr Ambedkar's incomplete mission of an India where the Dalits, minorities, the tribals and the oppressed would get their due rights). The slogan we give now, and which appealed to the PDA in this election is, 'Baba (Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar) tera mission adhura, Akhilesh karenge poora.'
This turn, this change in sentiment of the people of UP played a significant role in the SP emerging as the largest single party in the state.
The hope that the INDIA bloc and the issues it raised during the elections for the benefit of the PDA sections is totally responsible for the success of the SP and Congress in UP in 2024.
Why did BSP perform abysmally in the 2024 Lok Sabha election? From 10 MPs in 2019, why did the BSP fail to win even one seat in the state where it had been in power for four times?
After Babasaheb Ambedkar (after his death), his followers could not organise the Dalits as a singular political entity to win political mandate of the people; likewise, while Kanshi Ramji succeeded in uniting the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, after his death, his followers (Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party) too could not unite the Dalits and work for their progress and betterment.
Mayawatiji had in fact made Kanshi Ramji give it to her in writing that after him (Kanshi Ram's death) the mantle of Dalit leadership would be hers for the taking; that she would be the political and legal heir to Kanshi Ramji's legacy.
Now, the BSP is not somebody's private property (for Mayawati to get herself declared as Kanshi Ram's political heir); people's following (support of the Dalits) is a different thing but to get oneself anointed as a political heir didn't pass muster with the backward castes in the state for long.
She did get a lot of support based on which she managed to become UP's CM four times but that did not last permanently as somewhere she was seen to be diluting the interests of the bahujan samaj.
When the core voter of the BSP saw this compromise, this dilution of their rights it took its time to move away from the BSP and in this election a huge section -- I would say more than 40 per cent -- of the BSP's core voters blessed the SP without the SP even asking for it.
Mayawatiji no more controls the bahujan vote in UP. This section of the bahujans in UP has started abandoning Mayawatiji and it is only a matter of time that a huge section of the bahujans will start looking up to Akhilesh Yadav as their saviour.
2024 elections in a way is a watershed moment given the way how the PDAs have moved towards the SP.
Also, Mayawatiji's surgical strike against her nephew Akash Anand, who she gave the status of a national leader, and stripped him of his responsibilities immediately after he started speaking against the BJP was the last straw that sank the BSP's ship in UP.
The bahujans of UP are far foresighted than perhaps any other caste groupings and voted smartly to defeat the party which they were convinced was all set to finish their Constitutional powers if they were voted back to power with more than 400 seats.
People of UP understood the lip service paid (by Mayawati) by showering flowers on the statues of Dr Ambedkar. Offering flowers is the easiest thing to do but following in the footsteps of Dr Ambedkar and Kanshi Ramji requires another level of honesty and integrity.
Awadhesh Prasad defeated the BJP's Lallu Singh by a margin of 54,567 votes. Photograph: ANI Photo
What plans does the SP now have to retain the support of a large section of PDAs which have moved away from the BSP and towards your party, which till now supposedly and traditionally derived its strength from the Yadavs and Muslims?
This section of India society has suffered oppression and injustice since many centuries and today these people are not begging for their just rights; they are demanding them and rightly so.
They just don't want love and affection; today they are asking for their just share.
The SP will ensure that it supports these sections in their fight for their share so that they too can enjoy their just rights in a dignified manner.
The PDAs want their just share and the SP will be in the forefront of this fight in UP. It is our duty, our Constitutional obligation to ensure that each and every person belonging to the PDA gets their just rights not by trampling upon the rights of others but by getting what is due to them constitutionally and with dignity.
Can we see more office bearers in the SP now who belong to the PDA sections in UP? Will we see an organisational power shift among the office bearers of the SP in UP?
The SP today is dramatically and materially different from what it was 20 years ago. The SP today is marching in the state with a new leadership, a new thinking which is nothing but a combination of ideologies espoused by Dr Ambedkar, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Kanshi Ram.
