By Raj B. Singh, IANS, Lucknow: With tiresome regularity she targets Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and his able lieutenant Amar Singh at every election rally swearing to send them to “jail” as her top priority. And Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati’s gambit seems to be working.
“Uttar Pradesh is being ruled by a corrupt and evil government led by Mulayam Singh which has ruined all systems of governance as well as the law and order machinery,” Mayawati thundered at an election rally in Bahraich last week.
“This government has to go if the state is to turn around and therefore it has to be jail for the duo,” bellows Mayawati into a faulty microphone to the deafening applause of a 30,000 strong crowd that has waited patiently for an hour braving the high-noon heat.
It is a refrain that is heard repeatedly at all Mayawati’s election rallies – in Amethi, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh and Allahabad – as she promises to establish the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh if she is voted back to power.
“Both are planning to flee abroad where they have deposited their immense wealth after looting the state. But I will not let it happen. They will be arrested and put behind the bars,” she exclaimed to a boisterous welcome in Allahabad.
With pollsters putting ‘behenji’, as she is popularly referred to, ahead in terms of both the pace of electioneering and the impact she is having on the electorate, she has decided to put her best foot forward as the seven-phase staggered poll begins to wind down.
At the BSP supremo’s rallies that are huge with swelling crowds and blue flags all aflutter, the three-time chief minister of India’s most populous state knows that her campaign is far more efficiently organised this time around.
Though the former schoolteacher’s slogan has changed this time around in this crucial election, her domineering style remains.
The Bahujan volunteer force or the BSP’s private army orders the crowd to acquiescence. “We don’t mind. She is still our hope and this time she will emerge as the chief minister,” says Paltan, a BSP supporter.
For the redoubtable BSP chief, the election campaign is nothing but a political lecture delivered more in the style of preaching. Contrary to the two other aspirants to the top post, Mulayam Singh and the BJP’s Kalyan Singh, Mayawati addresses only two meetings every day.
“She has different notes for each constituency though a large part of it remains the same,” says a BSP confidant.
Also, at every rally she takes pains to explain to her supporters the minute details of the precautions to be taken on the day of polling.
“Voting, not eating, must be in the agenda of the BSP voters on polling day,” she announced at a rally.
But it is not all serious business at Mayawati’s political meetings. Occasionally, she injects some humour, proving she can be an entertainer as well, especially for the massive crowds who often have to wait under a scorching sun.
Last week in Pratapgarh, and again in Allahabad, in her opening gambit, she lambasted the people involved in arranging the sound systems because of poor acoustics.
“Those responsible for setting up the audio system may be hand in glove with the opponents of the BSP, keen on dashing our hopes to come to power,” she remarked.
“But the matter will be inquired into after the formation of the BSP government and if found guilty, the sound system man will be punished,” she said, provoking sufficient laughter among the audience to set the tenor for her political harangue.