OPPOSITION parties are flustered over the fact that BSP president Mayawati chose to praise the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government at her much-anticipated public rally on Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary on Thursday. However, it is not the first time that Mayawati, who has had an on-off relationship with the Samajwadi Party and Congress, has done so.
Mayawati’s rivals have long accused the BSP of being “the BJP’s B-team”, and suggested that she is taking a soft line on the BJP due to the many cases against her and her family members. After her speech Thursday, the SP and Congress called Mayawati “a true member of the BJP and a supporter of the RSS”.
Notably, the BJP too avoids targeting the BSP, specifically Mayawati. Regarded by many as an upper caste-based party still, the BJP is apprehensive about any comments regarding Mayawati alienating the Dalits.
For the record, Mayawati reiterated Thursday that she would not be allying with any party for either the coming Bihar elections or the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
Asked about Mayawati’s praise for Adityanath, a senior BSP leader said: “The BJP government deserved it as it has taken cognizance of issues raised by Mayawati ji and started restoration and repair of all the memorials and parks her government developed in Lucknow in its time (2007-12).”
The leader said the criticism of the Congress and SP didn’t bother the BSP. “It is good these parties are targeting us as it will help us get back our Jatav Dalit vote bank which shifted to an extent to the SP-Congress alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”
Currently, the BSP has only 1 MP, in the Rajya Sabha, with a 2.04% vote share overall in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In UP, where it is based, the BSP got 9.39% votes in the Lok Sabha but did not pick up a seat in the state either.
In the UP Assembly, the party is down to just one MLA, having got just 12.88% votes in the 2022 elections. It also has two MLAs in Rajasthan and one each in Punjab and Uttarakhand.
When BSP backed BJP
In September 2023, when the women’s reservation Bill was brought by the Modi government, Mayawati urged that there be reservation for OBCs, like for SCs and STs, within the women’s quota. But she went ahead and supported the legislation.
At the time, the BSP had 10 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 1 in the Rajya Sabha.
Incidentally, one of the loudest opponents of a women’s quota had been the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP founder and Mayawati’s arch rival.
The same month, when a political row erupted over invites during the G20 Summit in India being sent out in the name of ‘President of Bharat’ rather than ‘of India’, Mayawati slammed the Opposition for linking this to the BJP’s “fear” of the INDIA bloc. She said that by calling itself INDIA, it was the Opposition that had given the BJP an opportunity to “tamper with the Constitution” on the issue.
In May 2023, when over 20 Opposition parties announced a boycott of the inauguration of the new Parliament building as President Droupadi Murmu was not present at the event, the BSP chief stood apart, saying the government was within its rights to unveil the structure.
During the 2022 polls for the President, the BSP’s 11 MPs backed Murmu, who was the candidate of the BJP-led NDA, and was pitched as the first tribal with a chance to occupy the post.
Simultaneously, Mayawati hit out at Opposition parties, asking why they had not invited the BSP for meetings where they discussed their candidates for Presidential polls, calling their attitude “casteist”.
A few weeks later, she also backed the NDA’s Vice-Presidential candidate, Jagdeep Dhankhar, saying the BSP was doing so “in view of larger public interest and the party’s own movement”.
Incidentally, during the recent Vice-Presidential polls, necessitated due to Dhankhar’s sudden resignation, the BSP did not specify whom its lone Rajya Sabha MP, Ramji Gautam, voted for. Guatam himself just said he “followed the directives of the party”.
Back in August 2019, the BSP also supported the Modi government on the controversial move to abrogate Article 370, scrapping the special status for Jammu and Kashmir. Defending the move, Mayawati said, “As it is known, Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was always in favour of uniting the nation, and never supported Article 370.”
At the time, apart from its 10 MPs in the Lok Sabha, the BJP had 6 MPs in the Rajya Sabha.
When BSP praised Yogi govt
On September 11 this year, in a post on X, Mayawati thanked the UP government for stopping a Moradabad Municipal Corporation project to develop a Senior Care Centre at Gautam Buddha Park in Kanshiram Nagar area.
Mayawati had opposed the project saying that Gautam Buddha Park was a place of faith for followers of Buddhism, Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and “Bahujan samaj”.
Earlier last month, she thanked the UP government when it cancelled a proposal to “develop a Shivalaya at a Buddha Park in Kanpur”, having questioned the move to install a Hindu idol at a Buddhist centre of faith.
When BSP differed with BJP govt
In April this year, when voting was held in Parliament over the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, the BSP asked the Centre to reconsider its provisions and suspend the legislation for the time being.
In August, the BSP questioned the three Bills tabled in Parliament prescribing that any minister who has been in jail for 30 days for a serious offence would lose his or her post. Mayawati said the Bills would weaken democracy, in light of the prevailing political situation in the country, hinting at cases lodged against many leaders, mostly outside the NDA camp.
“It would be appropriate if the government certainly reconsiders in the interest of the country’s democracy and Constitution,” she posted on X.
The Bills were referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament for discussion.