Dayashankar Singh's Mayawati insult has greatly hurt BJP's UP prospects

In a single stroke, sacked BJP Uttar Pradesh vice-president, Dayashankar Singh , has caused irreparable damage to his party’s poll prospects and has consolidated the position of Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the state, ahead of the crucial UP Assembly elections next year.

Of late, there had been reports suggesting that Mayawati was getting marginalised in the state, as a section of Dalits and OBCs were seen gravitating towards the Hindutva fold. The BJP leadership was quite enthused with the accretion of support from these marginalised social groups, which normally were associated with the BSP.

But Dayashankar Singh’s utterances – that equated Mayawati to a sex-worker, who sells MLA tickets to the highest bidder – have clearly squandered away the BJP’s gains. To understand the political dynamics, let us first try to unravel the man that is Dayashankar Singh.

Though originally from Bihar, Singh’s family association with Ballia district entitled him to find a place in the BJP’s state unit. His close associates say that he was a dubious character right from the word go, and had been involved in several recruitment scams in the past. But Singh possesses a unique quality of getting proximity with the top leadership.

“He would not have got the post, had he not been close to the top leadership,” said a BJP office-bearer, who rues the fact that senior leaders ignored objections from the ground level, when Dayashankar Singh was given charge of leading the state Yuva morcha. “He managed to get close to Amit Shah as well, through various sources,” he pointed out.

Herein lies the problem. Dayashankar Singh is not the only one to have found entry into the BJP on account of his proximity to top leaders. In a political party like BJP, where office bearers had to pass through several filters, the practice of scrutiny is now given a go by. There are many Dayashankar Singhs waiting in the wings to commit indiscretion on account of their hubris.

What makes the BJP’s task most difficult is the party’s attempt to appeal to caste sensibilities. That is something which the BJP has never been known for. Look at the manner in which BJP president Amit Shah has been holding caste rallies all across Uttar Pradesh, winning over caste groups by projecting certain leaders without bothering much about their credentials. For instance, the party is so desperate to get Brahmin support that it does not hesitate to rope in people with criminal antecedents into its fold.

This is the precise reason why leaders like Uma Shankar Singh get promoted without going through the organisational filter. They are deemed as representatives of caste groups, without realising the fact that the caste complexity in UP cannot be oversimplified.

And indications are such that Amit Shah and his team have been pursuing mobilisation of castes in the same away as they did in Bihar – that came a cropper in the 2015 Assembly election.

A glimpse of Mayawati’s shrewdness was evident on Wednesday, in the manner in which she launched an attack on the BJP in her Rajya Sabha speech.

Though the House unanimously criticised Dayashankar Singh’s remark, and the Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed his regret to Mayawati, the BSP chief used this occasion to put across a strong message to her constituency – Dalits. She did not hesitate for a moment to bracket the BJP as a party of upper castes which is opposed to the rise of Dalits in politics.

Little wonder then, that like a seasoned politician, Mayawati twisted the knife deep to create a highly discomfiting moment for the BJP, making it difficult for them to wrest and dominate UP’s political narrative. Those who know UP can vouch for the fact that the BJP would have to pay a heavy political price for this indiscretion.