Contrary to the tall claims made by the Bahujan Samajwadi Party, the turnout at the rally convened by the party's supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday in Lucknow was far less than the expected numbers.
Though the party oft-repeated announcements said Maya would pull a crowd of about 20 lakh people, the rally failed to draw over 4 lakh people. But despite the poor numbers, Maya managed to send across all her pertinent messages effectively -- which included scathing criticism of the Congress and defending her dream projects of building statues and memorials.
Ostensibly convened to mark the silver jubilee of the party on the 76th birth anniversary of her political mentor and BSP founder Kanshi Ram, the rally was aimed to project Maya's might in the country's most populous state.
The Rama Bai Ambedkar Maidan venue, no doubt, seemed jam-packed. However, considering that the ground admeasured just about 32 acres, it could not accommodate more than 3 lakh people. With a spillover of about 1 lakh people on the roads, the total crowd could not have been more than 4 lakh.
Other than holding a strong defence for the billions she had spent from the state exchequer on her dream projects -- memorials and statues -- the tenor of her 90-minute speech, which she read out from notes, pointedly targeted the Congress, whom she sees as a potential future threat.
Maya blamed the opposition parties for creating legal hurdles in every project she undertook.
"It was quite evident that the opposition parties the Congress in particular -- cannot tolerate the rise of a "Dalit ki beti' at the helm of affairs of India's most populous state, and who has the potential to even rise to greater heights and rule the country one day," she alleged.
"In its desperate bid to grab power in the state, the Congress was busy playing gimmicks to woo Dalit voters, whom it used to remain in power for 38 years before it was voted out," she added.
The next target was Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
Flaying him for his forays into Dalit homes and sharing meals with Dalit families in UP villages, she warned the villagers, saying: "That is what you all must guard against, as Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi will continue to play such tricks to impress you."
She went on to add, "Don't vote for any party other than the BSP, which is your true and committed well-wisher."
She also blamed the Congress-led central government for neglecting the state. "The way in which our demands were kept in the cold storage in New Delhi reflects the hollow claims made by the Congress party regarding the development of UP.".
Though the rally was huge by normal standards, local officials conceded that the crowd was smaller than the turnout at the rally Mayawati had addressed shortly after assuming office for the fourth time in May 2007.
Maya's supporters, who had come from different parts of the state and country, applauded every time she reassured that she would fight for the rights of the "downtrodden, deprived castes".
At one point, Maya told her highly enthused audience: "I will continue to serve the cause of the Bahujan movement; and till I am alive, I will not allow any Dalit to bow his head to anybody."
Hearing this, the crowd immediately burst into a delirious applause -- many even danced with joy as they raised slogans of "Behen Mayawati zindabad".
Significantly, she also declared that her party's Brahmin mascot and party general secretary Satish Chandra Misra would not be part of the BSP's mainstream political activities.
"Satish Misra will henceforth head a new legal cell that we have created in view of the increasing litigation against me and the party; he was therefore being shifted from political tasks on account of the legal urgencies that were time consuming and required concerted attention," she said.
Maya, however, clarified that the move was not intended to sideline Misra.
"There have been a number of occasions in the past when the opposition has misused the media to spread a canard that Misra was being marginalised in the party. But let me tell you that there was no truth in that propaganda."
However, much could be read from Mishra's seating arrangement on Monday.
Unlike the 2007 rally when he sat nest to Maya, neither was Mishra seated next to her nor was he asked to address the rally on Monday. He was seated on a sofa along with other senior party leaders and ministers in a row behind Maya.
She said she cold not make visits to interior parts of UP as she was very busy with the political affairs of the state.
"You all must be wondering why I do not visit villages or undertake surprise inspections in different parts of the state as I used to in my earlier stints. Since Kanshi Ram ji was alive then, I had no need to attend to political work, so I had all the time to devote to governance issues."
"In the present circumstances, I am hard-pressed with time as I have to attend to both political as well as administrative work. Therefore instead of traveling myself, I have asked some of my senior ministers and officials to undertake those tours."
Despite the government's decision to declare Monday as a public holiday, roads in several parts of the city remained clogged.
Nearly 9,000 policemen had been posted to manage the mega show.
As a parting note, Maya incited the crowd saying that they must help her in rewriting UP's history with new achievements.
"Remember, any society which does not create history always lags behind; that was the reason I decided to create and leave imprints that will remain there for posterity," she said.
