THE HINDU EDITORIAL ANALYSIS APRIL 9

The BSP, SP, and RLD need to convince voters that they are on the same page

The chiefs of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal combine threw down the gauntlet to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Deoband in western Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. The scale and fiery rhetoric were clearly aimed at forcing the momentum as western U.P. constituencies go to the polls on April 11, in the first of a seven-phase parliamentary election in the State. The BJP and its partners had won 73 of 80 seats in U.P. in 2014, and the State is central to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election bid. The political landscape in U.P, however, has changed significantly in the interim years, both in terms of party alliances and social realignments. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry as a Congress strategist and campaigner has added new variables that could complicate electoral calculations in U.P. In this emergent situation in the State, the rally must have brought some reassurance to the triumvirate of Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Ajit Singh, leaders of the SP, the BSP and the RLD, respectively. Mr. Yadav has been unambiguous in his deference to Ms. Mayawati, and they have been at pains to emphasize that they are reading from the same page, as coherence between the SP and BSP leadership is crucial for vote transfer of their core supporters.

Ms. Mayawati is an icon of Dalit empowerment, and since the 1990s has often been deft in building social alliances around her core vote. Mr. Yadav is the inheritor of the rump of Socialist (Lohiaite) politics in the Hindi belt, which has been reduced to a purely caste-based entity around the SP’s Yadav support. Both could be characterised as part of social justice politics, but the accent and rhetoric of their respective politics are dissimilar. Their opposing positions on the use of English is a case in point — the SP has been rather late in blunting its anti-English edge, while the BSP’s Ambedkarite politics considers it as a tool of empowerment. Though the SP and the BSP had an alliance in the mid-1990s, they had parted ways bitterly, with an SP mob even trying to physically harm Ms. Mayawati. The rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 U.P. Assembly elections have forced a rethink in their adversarial politics. Equally striking is Mr. Yadav’s outreach to the BSP, compared to his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s. Both parties are conscious that recovering the support of their larger social constituencies, the backward castes and Dalits, which were drifting towards the BJP in the past five years with a new format of social empowerment through Hindutva, is crucial. However, since the Assembly elections, old caste cleavages have deepened under upper-caste Hindutva assertion. By joining hands with the RLD, which has a Jat base in western U.P., and reaching out to Muslims forcefully, the two parties are seeking to draw voters with a show of winnability.



1)

gauntlet

 noun

BrE /ˈɡɔːntlət/


; NAmE /ˈɡɔːntlət/

1. -a metal glove worn as part of a suit of armour by soldiers in the Middle Ages
2. -a strong glove with a wide covering for the wrist, used for example when drivingmotorcyclists with leather gauntlets

3. rhetoric

    noun

   BrE /ˈretərɪk/
   

   ; NAmE /ˈretərɪk/
   

   [uncountable]
   1. (formal, often disapproving) speech or writing that is intended to influence people, but that is not completely honest or sincerethe rhetoric of political slogansempty rhetoricHis speech was dismissed as mere rhetoric by the opposition.

   2. unambiguous

       adjective

      BrE /ˌʌnæmˈbɪɡjuəs/
      

      ; NAmE /ˌʌnæmˈbɪɡjuəs/
      
      clear in meaning; that can only be understood in one wayan unambiguous statementThe message was clear and unambiguous—‘Get out!’

   3. cleavage

       noun

      BrE /ˈkliːvɪdʒ/
      

      ; NAmE /ˈkliːvɪdʒ/
      
      1. [countable, uncountable] the space between a woman’s breasts that can be seen above a dress that does not completely cover themShe leaned forward slightly, revealing a deep cleavage.
      2. [countable] (formal) a difference or division between people or groupsa deep cleavage between rich and poor in society