What, however, makes UP politics extremely complex is the presence of two parties to represent the traditional elites of the state — Congress and BJP. Thus, UP is a special Hindi heartland state. Here, bi-polar politics operates simultaneously at two levels — at the bottom (SP versus BSP) and at the top (Congress versus BJP).

When the anti-Brahmin movement and subaltern-based renaissance was unfolding in south and western India in the pre-independence period, it did not have to compete with electoral populism. So, over the years, it not only acquired a distinct identity, its also developed alternative models of governance and development. While UP showed how economic and social empowerment can lead to electoral hegemony, it has also revealed simultaneously a process of extreme political degeneration.

In those states where the subaltern has achieved a preeminent political position, splits or co-options are generally within the same social strata. In UP, however, one is witnessing the reverse cooption of brahmins and banias by the largest dalit political formation. This has followed attempts by Mulayam, so-called symbol of socialism, to co-opt the rabidly feudal Raja Bhaiyya. What the Congress earlier did in a subtle and ‘sophisticated’ idiom, is being replicated by formations that speak a crude vernacular language. Both are variations of the same opportunistic politics of cooption.

The writer is member secretary, Asian Development Research Institute, Patna