ANTI-SLIP TURF FOR MAYAWATI

Out of power for 15 years, and facing an erosion to her base from SP-Congress as well as new Dalit voices, the ex-CM's 'comeback' is a grim attempt to hold on

- By Avaneesh Mishra

IT'S NEVER A BAD TIME TO OBSERVE THE DARK IRONIES of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh. On October 1, in Rae Bareli, a young Dalit was lynched on suspicion of being a thief. A piece of ritual-like debasement came 20 days later: an elderly Dalit allegedly forced to lick his own urine off the ground near a temple at Kakori, outside Lucknow. On October 9, bracketed between those two events, Lucknow saw a rally—moving to its own inner logic, in another orbit.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, longtime patent-holder of Dalit representation, was making her first big address since 2021. Visually, her army conquered Lucknow: some 200,000 BSP workers, in blue gamchas and waving their blue flag, streamed in. The Kanshi Ram Memorial ground ran out of space. On the eponymous party founder's death anniversary, his protégée was making a rare statement.

BUT WHAT'S THE GAME?