BSP and the theory of wasted votes

Mail Today
January 4, 2008
Numbers by themselves do not necessarily tell a tale. But, often they are twisted out of context into something completely unrecognizable to suit the story-teller. The Bahujan Samaj Party polled over seven per cent in Himachal Pradesh and around three per cent votes in Gujarat, and the Congress is already in mourning. The party officially claims that the surge in BSP votes has resulted in a poor show by the Congress. Did the Congress really expect an emerging political rival to dole out votes?
Now, what the Congress actually laments is the beginning of a pan Indian Dalit consolidation. If the numbers do tell a dramatic story, it is of the beginning of the consolidation of votes in favour of a national Dalit party. Even for argument’s sake if it is accepted that all these were Congress voters who switched allegiance, it still could not be termed a negative act by the Dalit voter. The transition from Congress to the BSP could be a loss for the Congress, but for the Dalit voter, it is a positive move marking the end of a feudal relationship of fruitless loyalty.
The BSP voter in Gujarat and to a large extent in Himachal knew well that he or she was “wasting” their vote, that, despite the vote the BSP candidate would not win the election. There is a strong Bharatiya Janata Party parallel from south India.
The BJP polled 4.75 per cent votes in the 2006 Kerala assembly elections. The party has been in the fray for a long time, since the Jan Sangh days. There always used to be ideologically committed voters, who never worried much about “wasting” their precious votes for a candidate who would at best save his or her deposit.
Election after failed election, upper caste committed voters largely from the Nair community supported their Sangh Parivar candidates, but could never fulfill their dream of a saffron member in the legislative assembly, let alone Parliament.
Ironically it was a Christian candidate PC Thomas, originally from a Catholic-led party, who switched sides in 2004 to give National Democratic Alliance or any Sangh supported political formation its first ever victory in Kerala. And he has already gone back to another Catholic party. The BSP for the first time is drawing similar committed voters, who are voting just to assert their identity, like their upper caste counterparts in states where the BJP is traditionally weak. Also, like the upper castes of Kerala and Tamil Nadu relating to a Vajpayee or Advani, the Dalit voters across the country now find their leadership aspirations being fulfilled by Mayawati. The Dalit consolidation is of greater significance because it is the expression of the strength of the meek, whereas the upper caste assertion was through violent mobilization of co-opted mobs of backward classes, Dalits or even tribals.
In fact, the first Parivar MLA of Tamil Nadu, a backward class Nadar, won after a communal clash in the Padmanabhapuram constituency in south Tamil Nadu. The Rath Yatra made Advani a pan-Indian leader and BJP a national Hindutva party. The communal riots that ensued divided the polity, enlarging the limited tribe of committed voters in south Indian states.
But the emergence of the BSP as a national Dalit party has been a peaceful process, even at the cost of fire-spewing radical local parties. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian umbrella for long was in tatters. The Dravidian parties, particularly the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam became a party of dominant backward classes almost pushing the Dalits in the 1970s into the open arms of MG Ramachandran’s theatrics of favour dispensation. But all this could not stop the gradual radicalisation of the community. In 1980, half of a village in the southern district of Thirunelveli converted to Islam protesting against the oppression of the dominant Thevars. Even today the old Meenakshipuram coexists happily with the 28 year old Rahmatnagar. Dr Krishnaswamy of Puthiya Tamizhagam or New Tamil Nadu, came up in the 1990s in this milieu.
The Dalits of the Pallar subcaste found a leader in him, just as the Paraya subcaste in the north rallied behind Thol Thirumavalavan of the Dalit Panthers of India. Still, the BSP silently and peacefully garnered 0.78 per cent votes in the 2006 assembly polls. That is, over 2.5 lakh voters “wasted” their franchise on candidates who had no hope. Meanwhile, BJP’s committed vote share in Tamil Nadu was 2.02 in the same elections, and in at least one constituency, BSP came ahead of the BJP. It has to be remembered that this “wastage” is historically different from getting a candidate defeated. The best example for that negative act could be found in the first Lok Sabha election of 1951 when anti-Ambedkarite forces threw away their second ballot paper in the double member Bombay City North constituency to ensure Babasaheb’s defeat.
The new phenomenon is to keep voting for an idea in abstraction without expecting any immediate tangible result. This exercise could only be in the grand hope of these “sacrificial” votes attaining a critical mass sometime in the future to upset the status quo. Something metaphorically akin to radicals shedding blood for a latter day victory.
There is yet another state, where over two lakh people voted for the BSP in the same year --- West Bengal. This state, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu had addressed the poverty, social backwardness and oppression of Dalits in its dominant political idiom. The Periyar rhetoric of self respect was no less than the slogans of land to the tiller. Yet, the Dalit question is only accommodated in the political discourse there without any actual leadership role. The Communist parties historically had plenty of Dalit foot soldiers but unlike Congress did not even bother to have token leaders. Some of their voters are surely turning to the BSP.
What is the appeal of this party, which is not even radical enough to get noticed till the elections? Unlike the Delhi municipal elections, where it is common for those who are denied Congress or BJP tickets to switch over to the BSP, no career politician in the south or west has any reason to consider the BSP good enough to desert dominant political formations. Nor do they have the spillover effect of the party’s strength in a neighbouring state.
Worse, these politicians unlike in the north do not even identify with the politics of sub-caste. Most of the Dalits in south India are from agriculture labourer castes and not the leather worker ones. So, the identification with Mayawati is more to the idea that she represents than the person: The idea of Dalit leadership as against that of token share in power. The only difference between the old Congress alliance of castes and the new Sarvajan experiment of Mayawati is in the Dalit leadership of the caste coalition. It is this grand idea and its success in Uttar Pradesh that fulfills the aspirations of people who do not share a sub-caste or even a language with her.
But will this experiment in politics of aspiration succeed or will it remain stunted as it is in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh? First, Mayawati ought to achieve a critical mass of the “wasted” votes that could threaten the dominant caste alliances and their political formulations. Then, it depends on the need of the other castes or combinations to seek out an electoral alliance, surrendering the leadership to the Dalits. The most important aspect of the new experiment is the community’s dream of a leadership role, for which it would keep on voting for the BSP.