Lucknow. The election campaign in Uttar Pradesh is intensifying for the upcoming assembly elections. Leaders of almost all major parties (Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, AAP’s Kejriwal) are in the fray. They are releasing all the arrows of their quiver in their election meetings, but BSP supremo Mayawati is still in her den (home). Mayawati, who was the Chief Minister of UP four times, has not held a single election rally so far. The supporters of BSP are shocked by this attitude of the party chief. They do not understand why most of the MLAs of the party have migrated to other parties. And why sister-in-law (Mayawati) is not coming out of the house to campaign? Whereas the upcoming elections are very important for the party.
This question is justified in the minds of BSP supporters. These people are seeing that the Prime Minister is coming to UP every week and laying the foundation stone of big projects. Chief Minister Adityanath is also visiting the districts and informing the people about the work done by the government. They are giving gifts to street vendors, laborers and Anganwadi workers. On the other hand, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is also taking out the Vijay Yatra chariot in UP. Through these yatras, Akhilesh has announced to give five years free ration to the poor and three hundred units of free electricity if he becomes in power.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi is also holding rallies one after the other in UP. Priyanka has also announced to give 40 percent tickets to women and to give smartphones and scooties to girls who pass Inter. He has a special focus on cultivating youth and women among more than 15.02 crore voters of UP. But the face of BSP chief Mayawati is not seen campaigning in any district of UP, while Mayawati is the main campaigner of BSP. The BSP gets votes in her name, but she has not yet come out of her house. She came out of the house only on Kanshi Ram and Ambedkar Jayanti, apart from this she did not come out of her house. For a long time, Mayawati has been speaking at her home by holding press conferences and through tweets.
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It is being said that due to Mayawati’s distance from the public, the party’s MLAs have gone to other parties. In the 2017 assembly elections, Mayawati had secured the third position by winning 19 seats, but now only three MLAs are left in the party. In such a situation, discussions are intensifying about Mayawati’s disappearance from the electoral fray. Many political analysts are expressing surprise over Mayawati not contesting the election. Rajendra Dwivedi, who wrote a book on the election results of UP, is surprised that Mayawati, who was the Chief Minister of the state four times, has not been active in the elections so far? He says that at a time when many BSP MLAs have split, Mayawati’s not contesting the election will only harm the BSP. Senior journalist Ramdutt Tripathi also believes that it is surprising that why Mayawati is not visible anywhere.
According to Ramdutt, it is probably being said that he and his family members are under pressure due to disproportionate assets cases. BSP supporters do not agree with Ramdutt’s statement, perhaps it is also true. In fact, the main reason for Mayawati not contesting the election is the lack of popular leaders with the BSP. In the last six years, many prominent leaders like Brijesh Pathak, Swami Prasad Maurya, Jaiveer Singh, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Ramveer Upadhyay, Vinay Shankar broke ties with the BSP and moved to other parties. Now only Satish Chandra Mishra is left in the name of big leaders in BSP but votes are not available in the name of Satish Chandra. He is called a mask in the party. Due to which the main responsibility of campaigning for the party is on Mayawati. BSP supporters say that with Mayawati starting the election campaign from now, she will have to campaign for a long time. Mayawati does not want to campaign for a long time, so she is away from campaigning and is busy in making election strategy.
Ajay Bose, who has written a book on Mayawati about the strategy being made by Mayawati, says that at present, Mayawati is nowhere to be seen in the main fight in UP politics. In such a situation, he is following the strategy of campaigning in his old way, so that money can be saved. She also knows that this effort of Mayawati will harm the BSP. Rajdhani’s journalist Sharad Pradhan has a similar opinion. He says that now Mayawati sends only some of her people to get Brahmin conventions, gets press notes issued or tweets, so how will her voter who used to join her join this limited effort? Mayawati had finished third in the last assembly elections by winning 19 seats. When they come to power, their graph rises and when it moves, it falls. Since 2007, his support base has dropped in 2012 and 2017. In such a situation, if now she does not come out of the house and campaign for the election, then the party will suffer and it will be difficult to compensate.
Mayawati has also taken cognizance of such views of political experts and she has also given the reason for not being active in the election campaign. According to Mayawati, the BSP has a different working style and modalities regarding the preparation for the elections. which we do not want to change. For the working style of our party, other parties should not worry about us, we are concerned about our own party. Senior journalist Girish Pandey says on this statement of Mayawati, Mayawati’s fixed logic is not correct, Mayawati first started campaigning in the year 2007 and 2012. In the 2012 elections, he was then accused of campaigning with government funds. Then even the tableau of UP to be taken out on 26 January was banned and the Election Commission had ordered to cover the elephant statue in Ambedkar Garden. Therefore, the argument that Mayawati is giving is an attempt to cover up her shortcomings. The truth is that the 2017 assembly was Mayawati’s last opportunity to smile. By coming third in this election, he ended his chances. This is the reason why BSP stalwarts left the party one by one. In such a situation, neither the days of Maya nor the days of BSP will return. As a skilled politician, Mayawati also knows this. Maybe this is the reason why she prefers to stay at home better than going out this winter.
