Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not pose much challenge to the two major political parties — the Congress and the BJP — in the Assembly elections held in the four Hindi belt states. The Dalit-Brahmin ‘social engineering’ formula of the BSP that brought Mayawati to power last year in UP did not deliver the required numbers in these states. Nonetheless, Mayawati can find solace in the fact that her party has improved its performance in the Assembly polls in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

The party opened its account by winning two seats in Delhi for the first time, it improved its presence in Rajasthan (up from two seats to six), Madhya Pradesh (up from two to eight seats), and maintained its tally of two seats in Chhattisgarh.

In Delhi, it won the Badarpur and Gokalpur seats. As against 2003 Assembly polls, when it forfeited deposits in 36 of the 40 seats it contested, the BSP came second in five constituencies this time.

In MP, the party had polled 10.61 per cent votes in the 157 seats it had contested last time and won only two. This time, it not only won eight seats (Joura, Morena, Gwalior Rural, Sewda, Pathariya, Rampur-Baghelan, Sirmour, Teonthar) but also improved its performance. In 2003 it had forfeited deposits in 122 of the 157 seats, but this time it was second in 10 constituencies and polled more than 10 per cent of the votes in 51 constituencies.

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