Mayawati’s 59-page message was distributed to the BSP rank and file at the party’s national executive meeting held in Lucknow on August 27, where she was re-elected the party president for the sixth consecutive term.

In her appeal, Mayawati highlighted her “bad alliance experience” with the SP, tracing it from 1993 when they had forged it for the first time. “In the interest of the party and movement, it is necessary to remind that in 1993 UP Assembly polls then SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav had allied with BSP by convincing Kanshi Ram ji that Congress and BJP and other casteist parties do not want Dalits and OBCs to come together to become a political force and rule in the states and at the Centre. Trusting him, Kanshi Ram ji contested the 1993 polls in alliance with SP, although other parties had said it will not last long because of Mulayam. And that happened in the end,” she stated.

Mayawati said following alleged atrocities against Dalits, backwards and women on the watch of the Mulayam-led government, the BSP withdrew support from it on June 1, 1995, following which the Lucknow guest house attack on her was perpetrated the next day. On June 3, 1995, Mayawati formed the first BSP government with the support of “anti-SP” parties. Afterwards, the BSP maintained a distance from the SP for several years.

Referring to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati stated that the Akhilesh-led SP urged her party to “forget the past misdeeds of his party” and join hands again in order to “stop the BJP”. Under their seat-sharing pact, out of 80 seats the BSP contested 38 seats, bagging 10, while the SP contested 37 seats, winning only five seats.

In her message, Mayawati claimed that Akhilesh was so upset by the results that he shut their lines of communication. “Maintaining its self-respect, BSP then parted ways with SP,” she added.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav greets Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on her 63rd birthday. Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand is in the background. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav)

Keeping her guns trained on Akhilesh, Mayawati said that in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls Akhilesh got “some success” by tying up with the Congress and by “misleading PDA (Pichde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) in the name of protecting the Constitution and reservation”. “But PDA people will get nothing from that. They need to be cautious with SP,” she charged.

Mayawati has issued such an appeal for her party members and supporters after 10 years. BSP insiders said she stopped this practice after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the party drew a blank. The BSP has since been on a downward spiral in UP. In the 2022 Assembly polls, the party won only one seat out of 403 seats, with its vote share dipping to 12.88%. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party failed to open its account, with its votes plunging to just 9.39%.

BSP sources said Mayawati’s bid to renew this practice and launch a sharp attack on the SP is a “strategic move” ahead of 2027 UP Assembly polls for which the BSP will try to regain its lost ground by winning back a section of its Dalit vote base that shifted to the SP-Congress alliance in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

“This booklet of appeal is being sent to all BSP leaders and workers. They have to read it and communicate the message of Behanji (Mayawati) among Dalits and OBCs to convince them to support the BSP once again. They will be reminded about the Lucknow guest house incident to evoke sympathy for Mayawati ji and expose SP again,” said a party leader.

In her appeal, Mayawati said it is necessary to save the Constitution, B R Ambedkar’s movement and reservation from various “threats”, including from the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Opposition Congress-led INDIA.

Reaching out to the OBCs, Mayawati stated that they have suffered due to their “isolation”. “They (OBCs) will have to develop political power by uniting with Dalits and tribals. Only then they will be able to rule politically and uplift themselves,” she said.

This claim has been made by Mayawati in her long “appeal” that she has made to the BSP leaders and cadre to apprise them of the political situation and prepare them for multiple challenges facing the party. (File photo)

She accused the Congress of “undermining” the Constitution by having amended it repeatedly during its long regime. At the same time, she also charged the BJP-led government with “attacking” the Constitution and even constituting a Commission to review it in the past, which, she added, was foiled by strong protests.

Mayawati added that the BSP governments in UP built memorials, parks, colleges, universities, hospitals and new districts to give respect to gurus, saints and great personalities from the Dalit and OBC communities. She alleged the names of several such places were changed by the SP government due to its “casteist mindset and political vendetta”, which was also, she added, not restored by the BJP government. “This proved SP-BJP collusion,” she claimed.

Referring to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s recent interaction with a cobbler at his shop in UP, whom he later sent a shoe- stitching machine, Mayawati said, “That was highlighted in the media as a major step towards social change. In reality, this is the basic difference between the ideas of casteist parties, such as Congress, BJP and SP, and the BSP. They consider ensuring shoe repair with machines instead of hands as a major mark of social change. However, BSP’s social reform mission says why should the work of shoe repair or sanitation should be done only by people of one particular caste on the basis of their birth?”

Mayawati also stated that social reformers born in “sawarna samaj” (upper castes) have only shown “udarta” (leniency) and that they they “failed in ensuring jaati unmulan (eradication of caste) and samtamulak siddhant (principles of equality)”. “At best they can be called udarwadi but social transformation is not possible by them,” she said.

Describing the Congress members as “Gandhi-wadi” and the BJP members as “RSS-wadi”, the BSP chief questioned how could they be “manavtawadi and samtamulak Ambedkarwadi (humanitarian and egalitarian Ambedkarites)”, claiming that they do not have a moral right to lead Dalits, tribals and OBCs.

She also said while that BJP and Congress dispensations appoint Dalit and Bahujan samaj people as President, Governor and national president of the party “just for their political interests”, they have not appointed a Dalit as the Prime Minister so far. And if due to any “political compulsion” they would do it in future, they would pick a Dalit person who would be their “yes man”, she claimed.

Without naming parties like Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) – led by Chadrashekhar Aazad, who pulled off a win from UP’s Nagina seat in the Lok Sabha polls – Mayawati also alleged that the Congress and the BJP were encouraging outfits floated by “selfish leaders from Dalit communities” in a bid to “divide” the Dalit votes and undermine the BSP and its movement. She cautioned Dalits and Bahujans from “such leaders who invoke Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram to divide their followers”.