LUCKNOW — Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has stepped up efforts to party’s traditional Dalit base while reaching out to Other Backward Classes (OBCS) and Muslims ahead of 2027 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati is working to win the confidence of the Muslim community despite blaming them for the worst defeat suffered by the party in the 2022 assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati had stated that Muslim community had dumped the BSP due to the “tacit campaign” launched by the rival BJP and SP to polarise the Muslim and Hindu votes.
The BSP chief had fielded 88 Muslim candidates in the 2022 assembly elections while tickets were given to 19 Muslim candidates in the 2024 Lok sabha elections. Muslims account for 19% of the UP’s population and their support is crucial for the BSP to make a comeback in the state politics, according to SK Srivastava, a political observer.
The BSP is now focusing on consolidating both Dalit and Muslim voters by forming Muslim Brotherhood Committees across the state — a move that could pose a serious challenge to the Samajwadi Party (SP), which traditionally enjoys strong support among Muslim voters.
According to party sources, each committee will include one Muslim and one Dalit member, symbolising BSP’s effort to bring both communities onto a common platform. The initiative has already begun in the Lucknow division, where two committee members have been appointed.
According to media reports, Mayawati has also directed her organisational team to expedite the formation of these committees.
This strategic shift follows BSP’s recent show of strength during the death anniversary rally of Kanshi Ram, which drew massive crowds of Dalit supporters, reaffirming that the party’s traditional Dalit base remains intact. With the new outreach toward Muslims, Mayawati aims to create a formidable Dalit-Muslim electoral bloc ahead of 2027.
Mayawati’s new alliance-building strategy could revive BSP’s electoral fortunes and re-establish her as a key player in Uttar Pradesh politics, say observers.
After losing in the 2017 UP assembly elections, Mayawati had gradually distanced herself from active politics.
Allegations started surfacing that she had become the BJP’s B-team. In 2018, this inactivity also became the reason for Chandrashekhar’s rapid rise in her political stronghold of Western UP.
In 2024, when she showed her nephew Akash the exit door from the party after his comments on PM Modi, open accusations were made that she had secretly aligned with the BJP.
The way she made decisions in the early months of 2025 also sent the same message. However, after April 15, Mayawati washed away all allegations against her one by one. First, she brought her nephew Akash back to the party. Then she started tightening the loose organisational screws.
