“This election has given the BSP a zabardast result,” she read out from her now trademark handwritten notes, “after 14 years of an undecided polity, with no party getting a majority, the people of UP have finally installed a single-party government to power.” Then, thanking the people of the state for rising above caste and class to vote the BSP, Mayawati underlined that the values of the revolutionary icons of the Dalit Samaj — from Periyar, Narayana Guru, Jyoti Rao Phule and Shahuji Maharaj — had won.

Mayawati’s success has been resounding for several reasons. She is the first leader to instal the first Dalit government to power in the country. She has also turned the Dalit-Brahmin equation on its head, giving the upper-castes their first taste of power through a Dalit government. It is also the first successful and fruitful win for the BSP after the demise of her mentor, Kanshi Ram.

The ride has been anything but easy. While her opponents sunned in the spotlight, Mayawati shunned the public glare as she set about building the party “superstructure.” She pulled together a band of trusted leaders, who put the building blocks of the organization to make it ingenious and efficient. From choosing candidates to choosing strategies, the BSP soon earned the reputation for “systematic structuring” in information-gathering and dissemination, mobilizing people and opinion, working out the arithmetic — as much as the chemistry — of caste configurations and community allegiances and strengthening the party’s organization from the district level upwards.

... contd.