Surprise+landslide+in+Indian+state+election,+Randeep+Ramesh,+Guardian

The Guardian, London, Saturday May 12, 2007
=Surprise landslide in Indian state election=


 * //Mayawati takes country's most populous state//
 * //Untouchable leader uses cross-caste appeal to win//


 * Randeep Ramesh** in Mumbai

India's most prominent untouchable leader, a former Delhi school teacher, yesterday pulled off a surprise landslide election victory in the country's most populous state - stalling the political ambitions of the Gandhi family's heir apparent.

Mayawati, who only uses a single name, leads the Bahujan Samaj party which looks set to sweep the polls in Uttar Pradesh, a northern Indian state of 170m people and the country's most important bellweather of public opinion. Uttar Pradesh is a dirt-poor rural backwater that would be the world's sixth most populous state if it were a nation. Less than half the women in the state can read or write. It has also produced most of India's prime ministers.

Mayawati looks able to form a majority without the help of any other party in the state's 403-seat house. She has been chief minister of the state three times, but each was a short stint where her party was a junior partner in a coalition.

Her victory can be traced to her decision two years ago to drop her anti-upper caste vitriol and court other social groups. The fiery speaker built an unlikely partnership between Brahmins, at the top of the Hindu caste hierarchy, and Dalits or untouchables, at the bottom. Mayawati's strategy saw her party field 86 upper-caste Brahmin candidates, compared with 91 Dalits.

The pair have traditionally been pitted against each other in the caste system. However both groups in north India have been steadily losing influence to the rising middle castes, particularly the Yadavs - landowning animal herders who have done well in north India in recent years, in part thanks to positive discrimination.

Their political champion, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had ruled Uttar Pradesh for five years by handing jobs and contracts to members of his own community, yesterday was dethroned - conceding defeat early.

The result was also a lesson for Rahul Gandhi, the son of Sonia Gandhi who runs the ruling Congress party, who spent a month criss-crossing Uttar Pradesh but could only hold on to 22 seats.

Political analysts described the result as a bolt from the blue. "Nobody expected this result and it is one of historic importance. In building a coalition between Brahmins and Dalits she will have to govern for both communities - a difference from when politicians promised to look after just their own caste," said Ramachandra Guha, author of India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy. "She may be imperious and whimsical but she has demonstrated a shrewder political brain than her adversaries."

When last in office Mayawati practised the politics of patronage and symbolism, handing out jobs on the basis of caste, and built statues of her political hero B R Ambedkar, a Dalit leader who wrote India's constitution. Mayawati, 51, remains an enigma in the country's politics. She rarely gives interviews and was best remembered for her lavish birthday celebrations. She was also embroiled in corruption charges in 2003 over a foiled plan to build a shopping mall beside the Taj Mahal. To supporters she was the wronged party, and her popularity surged.


 * From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2078012,00.html**

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