 |
India goes to polls(15th Lok Sabha)
Kumari Mayawati
|
|
|
| Election 2009 | Prediction |
Mayawati, currently the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, is the first Dalit woman to hold the post in any Indian state. She has been the Chief Minister during three other short tenures but her party holds the absolute majority in the state as of date.
Kumari Mayawati (i.e.Chandawati Devi) was born in Delhi to Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Prabhu Das, her father worked as a clerk in the telecommunications department. She graduated from Kalindi College in Delhi and holds both Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Education degrees. She worked as a teacher in Delhi (Inderpuri JJ Colony) during which time she studied for the Indian Administrative Service exam. In 1977, Kanshi Ram became very influential in her life resulting in her joining his core team when he founded the BSP in 1984. Shortly after, she changed her career path and entered politics full time.
In 2001, Mayawati was accused of forcing her MLAs to hand over money from their MLA fund, given for constituency development, to BSP fund. Shortly thereafter 140 corruption cases were filed against her. In 2002, She was again charged with misappropriating Rupees 175 crore in a Taj Corridor project providing tourist facilities in Taj Mahal in Agra. Many eyebrows were raised when Mayawati declared her personal assets worth Rupees 52 crore in 2007.
Despite the corruption charges, Mayawati stormed back to power in 2007 assembly elections winning absolute majority, first by any party since 1991 in Uttar Pradesh. In the elections, she for the first time came out of her Dalit-only vote banks by including upper caste people including Brahmans in her poll arrangements. After her win, she distributed ministerial berths among upper caste people too. This is seen as a major shift in caste politics in India.
Hugely popular with her regional power base, she has now taken her ambitions to the national level ahead of general elections that start April.
On Sunday, 14th march 2009 she announced her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP, the Dalit Society Party) would contest seats across the country on its own, challenging the two main national parties - the ruling Congress, and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."
PREDICTION:
Mayawatiji has been a strong phenomenon in Indian politics and will continue to play a strong part till 2016 at least.
Current elections come in at a time when she needs partners and partners need her to get power.
There are strong hurdles and competition currently which will not allow her to realize her full potential since a lot of competition and under cutting will cost BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) a loss of few seats.
There will be low chances of BSP being an important part of an alliance and similarly chances of being the Prime Minister do not look strong yet.
However political equation could change after October 2009 and the period till end 2010 will help redefine the political situation.
There could be realignment in political forces during 2010, which could put the BSP in a very strong position of power and land Mayawatiji in an immensely powerful and gainful position.
There are chances BSP would share power in 2010 and a definite rise in position, gains and power will come during 2011 till 2014.
BSP and Mayawatiji will go through its most powerful phase between 2012 – 2016.
It is during this period that she could be elevated to the highest position in the country for a period in between this phase.
BSP and Mayawatiji would definitely have a stronger position as compared to the last general election.
|
|
| |
|
|
