The Success and Sustainability Of Mayawati’s Bhai-Chara

by P RAMAN
Posted on 2008-11-28
CONTRARY to public perception, results of the ensuing assembly elections on December 8 may not indicate the actual composition of the 15th Lok Sabha. This is because most of the 79 seats at stake fall in four major bipolar states where it is a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP. The real fight for the bulk of the Lok Sabha will have to be waged in a large number of states dominated by the powerful provincial parties. The present elections will, at the most, show the strength of the two leading parties within their respective alliances.
However, the assembly results will shed more light on two significant but less noticed political trends. First, to what extent the phenomenon of third parties is penetrating the bipolar havens of the north. Second, the success and sustainability of Ms Mayawati’s ‘bhai chara’ strategy, a largely ignored political tool which her chief rival Samajwadi Party is now trying to emulate. As for the first, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh look most vulnerable to the multi-polarisation process. But in both states, the third parties will have to wait more to be of a serious challenge in numbers. Yet the process has been loud and clear. In recent Delhi municipal elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party had won ten out of the 17 seats in east Delhi.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BSP, Gondwana Party and Ms Uma Bharti’s outfit are making determined forays to dent the BJP and Congress bastions. In the previous election, the BSP had got over 8 per cent votes in MP with its nominees coming second in 25 seats. But so far it has been confined largely to pockets like Bundelkhand. This month, four former rajas have deserted the Congress to join the BSP. Ms Mayawati, who has been camping in MP for four days, is focusing on 160 constituencies, mostly along the UP border. The assembly results will show to what extent the third parties have been able to sustain their foothold and stretch out to other regions of the state.
For Ms Mayawati, this time her party is armed with a cunningly crafted political tool to make her charge more deadly. Her ‘bhai chara’ (caste brotherhood) strategy to rope in the support of local upper castes is in full play. This has been the most crucial factor that had enabled her to wrest a majority in UP. If Kanshi Ram’s old ‘tilak, terazu, talwar, inko maro jute char’ had eroded the traditional Dalit foundation of the Congress, the BJP has been the worst victim of Ms Mayawati’s ‘bhai chara’. Hence both national parties dread the BSP’s intrusion. In UP, the BSP had roped in upper caste community leaders with attractive political rewards, thereby weaning away the Brahmins, Thakurs and banias from the BJP. Packaged as ‘sarvajan’ (as against bahujan), the new winning plan allows full play of opportunistic power politics in areas where the BSP has marginal presence.
Under this plan, Ms Mayawati sends her trusted representatives to poll-bound states to scout for rich and influential candidates who could organise the campaign. Congress and BJP defectors are the preferred targets. It is a new version outsourcing of political work under franchise. The upper caste candidates could mobilise the local Dalits in Mayawati’s name. The BSP only lends its brand name and authorisation letter with sufficient supervision by deputies from Lucknow. Congess and BJP may be cagey about the ‘sale’ of election tickets, but the BSP makes it an obligation on its upper caste ticket holders to finance not only their own campaign but also finance the work of neighbouring Dalit candidates. This month another order came: the upper caste candidates must give an additional Rs 35,000 as expenses of the election supervisors sent from Lucknow.
It has been under this strategy that Mr Kanwar Singh Talwar, officially the richest candidate in Delhi, became the nominee of the party of the poorest. But he goes on a bicycle, and extended lot of material help to the local voters. Ms Mayawati’s ‘sarvajan’ model can work only in regional outfits under one-boss leadership. Like Ms Jayalalitha and Ms Mamata Bannerjee. Here the boss’ word is final on all matters. Leaders could be removed or posted at will without bothering about organisational formalities. The absence of ideology and programmes – for the first time in its history, the BSP is presenting an election manifesto in Delhi – makes it easier for the BSP to package itself to suit any local conditions.
Ms Mayawati’s arduous journey from bahujan to sarvajan highlights the great Indian political paradox. It is easier to garner votes on identities but no caste or religious divide can win more than a limited number of seats in a House. Ms Mayawati has 20 per cent reliable, transferable votes in UP. Her sarvajan model has been designed to break this inbuilt barrier. To begin with, she had called meetings of Brahmin community in certain UP areas to seek a straight political deal – pooling of votes by the two sides and allotting seats roughly on population basis. Then came the bhai chara conventions with Thakurs and Vyshyas. These are community-to-community deals. It proved such a big hit that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav too began calling his own sammelans of Thakurs, Aggarwals and Vishwakarmas.
Ms Mayawati’s is a coalition of castes but under the Dalit dictatorship. Now most of her advisers and political executives are upper castes. While other parties too practice caste at micro levels, the BSP does it at all stages with full publicity. For instance, in Chhatisgarh, the BJP has 26 OBCs, eight Vyshyas and seven Brahmins while the Congress representation is 21, five and eight respectively. The two parties have given disproportionate representation to the neo-rich (due to high land prices) Gujars and Jats around Delhi. True, Ms Mayawati’s ‘sarvajan’ tie-up has the potential of officially formalising the traditional caste divide. But then others are also at it. Demand by 170 MPs for caste-based census, Madras High Court’s endorsement of this and Supreme Court’s refusal to ask the election commission to drop caste names from the poll lists had all come within a week this month.
The BSP’s Lucknow office is flooded with request for ‘sarvajan’ ‘franchises’ even from far-away states. This gives her unlimited scope to pick and choose party executives in states. The question is: can she replicate the UP success elsewhere even at a moderate level. At least twice, her upper caste MLAs had ditched the BSP in UP assembly. If they can’t do it now, it is because there is no alternative in the present house. But it can still occur in marginal states. This is especially so because the arrangement is founded purely on temporary deals. Such dangers are embedded in the ‘sarvajan’ model. The assembly results will indicate whether the ‘sarvajan’ can make any breakthrough in the bipolar belt or it will face its Karnataka fate.