The SP won an unprecedented 37 seats to emerge as the largest party in Uttar Pradesh and its alliance partner, the Congress, won six seats. The BSP, on the other hand, was reduced to zero seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls which the BSP and SP fought together, the SP won just five and the BSP 10 seats.

Multiple SP, BSP leaders and analysts ThePrint spoke to are, however, of the view that Mayawati accusing Akhilesh of ignoring her calls five years ago is far from a casual observation. It’s rather a well-calculated strategy to turn it into a case of insult and humiliation allegedly meted out to the Dalit leader by Akhilesh who successfully won over a significant section of Dalits in this year’s general election.

That explains why Akhilesh and his party colleagues have been at pains to rebut Mayawati’s version about her phone calls. Akhilesh says he was caught unawares when the alliance was called off by the BSP.

Mayawati’s latest salvo is one of a string of moves by the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister to revive her political fortunes and project herself as the real protector of the Dalits and backward communities in the run-up to 10 high-stakes assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

“Raking this issue five years later is definitely political. The 2024 Lok Sabha polls were fought on an agenda — to save the Constitution and reservations. The Dalits and the backwards stood up against the BJP and supported the INDIA alliance,” Ravi Kant, a political commentator and professor at Lucknow University’s Hindi department, told ThePrint.

He added: “She is trying to show that Akhilesh insulted her by not taking her phone calls. The Jatavs can forget anything but not her insult. So, the message is not for Akhilesh, not for upper-castes but for her own people who have been drifting away from her and siding with the INDIA alliance, especially with the Congress.”

He said the Jatavs — who account for 11 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s population — have traditionally backed the BSP for decades. But the BSP’s low 9.39 percent vote share in the Lok Sabha polls suggests that even a significant section of its core constituency of Jatavs had deserted the party this time.

According to a CSDS poll, 56 percent of non-Jatav Dalits voted for the SP-Congress alliance in the Lok Sabha elections and 25 percent of Jatav Dalits voted for the INDIA coalition.

Shashikant Pandey, former head of the political science department at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), told ThePrint the latest bid to revive the events of 2019 reflected Mayawati’s desperation to reclaim the support of the Dalits and backwards.

He said the reasons for calling off the SP-BSP alliance in 2019 are hardly relevant today but Mayawati is raking up the issue to win back the lower OBCs and Muslims who have deserted the party and rallied behind the SP.

“The core votebank of the SP and BSP is somewhat the same. While Kanshi Ram formed the BAMCEF and the BSP had the support of the Dalits under him and Mayawati, SP had the support of the rest of the OBC communities,” Pandey said.

“Having lost her political ground in the latest Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati has not been targeting the BJP but targets the SP most of the time. Mayawati won elections four times and on those occasions, Muslims and lower OBCs had been part of her party. Now, Muslims have deserted the party and rallied behind the SP,” he added.

Pandey said the war of words could give the BSP some headlines but eventually, the party has to work on the ground to revive its fortunes.

Also Read: Mayawati strives to rebrand self, BSP ahead of key assembly bypolls, one move at a time

Unanswered phone calls & 1995 ‘murder attempt’ on Mayawati

The war of words between the arch rivals erupted after the BSP distributed copies of the booklet at its national executive meeting on 27 August, explaining why the BSP had called off its alliance with the SP after the 2019 Lok Sabha poll results.

In the booklet, Mayawati said Akhilesh was so dejected by the poll results that he stopped taking calls from her and other senior party leaders.

“The SP-BSP alliance was aimed at checking the BJP from rising to power at the Centre. However, the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was so dejected with the election results — in which the BSP got 10 seats and the SP five — that he stopped taking calls from the BSP chief and other senior leaders. Hence, a decision was taken to sever ties with the SP without compromising with our self-respect,” it said.

Mayawati also mentioned the infamous “guest house” incident of 2 June, 1995, which she described as a “murder” attempt on her life.

The BSP says Samajwadi Party leaders attacked her as she was holding a meeting with party workers at a Lucknow guest house in 1995.

“After surviving the murder attempt, the BSP went ahead to form its first government with the help of anti-Samajwadi parties. It has continued to maintain distance from the Samajwadi Party since then. But when Akhilesh Yadav approached with an offer for an alliance, the two parties entered a pre-poll alliance,” it says.

A senior BSP leader told ThePrint Mayawati instructed party leaders and office-bearers to circulate the booklet among the party cadre and workers.

With the booklet’s contents attracting attention, the SP chief on Thursday countered Mayawati’s account, saying he was caught unawares when the BSP called off the alliance.

“When the alliance was broken, I was on stage in Azamgarh (at a rally)… The SP-BSP leadership was there on stage when I got to know that the coalition was set to break off. I had myself made a phone call (to the BSP leadership) to ask why the alliance was being called off and what I would say to the press,” Akhilesh told reporters.

“At times, people spread something to hide their own doing,” he said.

Hours after Akhilesh’s comments, Mayawati reiterated her stand that the alliance was called off because the SP chief stopped taking her calls.

“Talking about the coalition breaking off after the BSP won 10 and SP won five seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, I had publicly said that the SP chief had stopped answering my calls… How correct or credible is it to give a clarification about it so many years later? A point to ponder upon,” she wrote on social media platform X, earlier called Twitter, on Friday.

“The BSP doesn’t enter an alliance on principles but if it has to form a coalition for bigger goals, it definitely remains honest towards it. All efforts were made to adhere to the alliance with SP in 1993 and 2019 but the benefit of the Bahujan society and self-respect is the most important.”

1. लोकसभा चुनाव-2019 में यूपी में BSP के 10 व SP के 5 सीटों पर जीत के बाद गठबंधन टूटने के बारे में मैंने सार्वजनिक तौर पर भी यही कहा कि सपा प्रमुख ने मेरे फोन का भी जवाब देना बंद कर दिया था जिसको लेकर उनके द्वारा अब इतने साल बाद सफाई देना कितना उचित व विश्वसनीय? सोचने वाली बात।

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) September 13, 2024

Also Read: How Akash Anand’s return as Mayawati’s successor could shake up battle for Dalit votes in UP

Blame game

BSP and SP leaders have different accounts of why the 2019 alliance was called off. Former BSP MLC Bhimrao Ambedkar blamed Akhilesh for the parting of ways.

Ambedkar said Mayawati told office-bearers and district presidents at a meeting after the 2019 election that she and other party leaders had tried to speak to Akhilesh after the poll.

“She wanted to convey that while the BSP had won 10 seats and the SP five and even his wife (Dimple Yadav) had lost, the parties should continue the fight. We were informed that Satish Chandra Misraji too took the lead to talk to him but even his call was not answered. And in such a situation, there was no future of the alliance,” he said.

Sushil Anand, son of former Rajya Sabha MP Balihari Babu and a former BSP leader who joined the SP in 2020, told ThePrint Akhilesh wanted to stick with the alliance after the 2019 elections.

“This is being raked up after so many years now. People understand why this is being raised now when two major elections have already passed since then. Akhileshji entered the alliance and whatever the BSP said was granted to it. The seats that they wanted were given to them and we (SP) adjusted in the rest. I think Akhileshji wanted to stick with the alliance,” he said.

SP MLA Sangram Yadav, son of senior SP leader Balram Yadav, told ThePrint that Akhilesh had clarified the sequence of events to clear the air and smelt the BJP’s hand behind Mayawati’s statements.

“The people of the country and the public of UP know that behenji is levelling unwanted and baseless allegations to hide the reality and her statements are farthest from reality,” Yadav said.

He added: “The mandate that SP has got under the leadership of our national president Akhilesh Yadav has changed the language of the chief minister too. The BJP can make (the BSP) do anything…The BJP is on the backfoot.”

Experts said Akhilesh had the advantage in this war of words.

Mirza Asmer Beg, professor of political science at Aligarh Muslim University, told ThePrint that while Mayawati exhibited desperation at the party level, Akhilesh’s reaction was mature.

“Akhilesh has displayed political maturity with his statement in the sense that he has tried to curb any doubts arising in the minds of the public due to the comments of the BSP leaders. But even if the BSP’s narrative is correct, the past record of Mayawati and her arrogance may render weightage to his statement,” he said.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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