Mayawati’s social engineering also extends to other non-dalits. The banias are tilting towards BSP; they argue it is the only party which can end the goonda raj of extortionists. The BSP’s decision of giving party tickets to 110 OBCs is part of the gameplan. It is that segment of the lower OBCs which has reason to join hands with dalits as they are an equally harassed lot.

The BSP has worked out a phase-wise strategy of social engineering: it went for a jat-jatav-Muslim combine in jatland UP, where jatavs and Muslims together form about 34 to 66 per cent of the electorate. In Ruhelkhand, depending on the share of kurmis and Muslims, Mayawati has worked out kurmi-dalit or Muslim-dalit combines. The BSP was placed second or third in 150 constituencies losing by a margin of one to ten thousand votes in 2002 assembly elections. This time its social engineering has the potential to turn the tables in many such constituencies.

Mayawati’s experiment is reminiscent of the social coalition of post-Independence Congress. But the inner dynamic of the attempted social coalition is diametrically opposed to that of the post-Independence era. It may signify a progressive step designed to amalgamate social justice with social cohesion.

The writer teaches politics in Christ Church College, Kanpur