Lucknow: After a gap of four years, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is preparing to address a mega rally in Lucknow next month, in a move that appears to be an attempt to get her party machinery and cadre ready for the next assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, much ahead of time, nearly a year and a half earlier.
The Mayawati rally is coming up at a time when the fortunes of BSP appear to be on the wane. Its vote share in the last assembly elections dropped to 13 percent from 22.23 percent in 2017—a trend since 2012, when its steady electoral decline began.
Now, to revive the party, Mayawati will address the mega-rally ‘Lucknow Chalo’ on 9 October to energise BSP workers, who will gather wearing their symbolic blue gamchas (stoles). Party functionaries say at least two lakh workers from across UP are likely to convene at the Kanshi Ram Memorial, a significant site of Bahujan unity built during the tenure of BSP, for her address.
In the past few weeks, the BSP chief has reorganised the party structure and raised local issues—be it the recent Buddha Park controversies, or atrocities against Dalits—appearing more vocal than in the years before. During party reorganisation, Mayawati set aside differences to allow the return of Akash Anand and his father-in-law, Ashok Sidharth, into the BSP. This renewed activism, along with her reconciliatory approach, signals an attempt at a revival in the coming 2027 elections.
In the words of BSP state president Vishwanath Pal: ”Behenji will address the party cadre from Kanshi Ram Memorial, giving a call to prepare for the 2027 assembly elections and energise workers.” It is key to motivate the cadre early, so outsiders cannot build a narrative that the BSP is inactive on the ground, Pal added.
‘We are not absent from the game’
At the 9 October programme, the BSP will formally launch its mission for the 2027 UP assembly elections, The Print has learnt. The last time Mayawati addressed a gathering of this scale was on 9 October 2021, ahead of the 2022 state assembly elections.
A senior BSP functionary in UP told ThePrint, “The upcoming election is crucial for us, as a section of Dalit voters shifted towards the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. We now need to win them back. We need to prove that we are not absent from the game.”
“Our focus is on Dalits, Muslims and the extremely backward classes (EBCs). The decision to retain Vishwanath Pal as state president reflects Behenji’s continued reliance on the EBC base. She is also working to strengthen internal unity by assigning responsibilities to senior leaders.”
Another functionary told ThePrint that workers will reach the state capital a day in advance of the mega-rally. The BSP local unit has pre-booked the Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan on the outskirts of Lucknow. The BSP is expecting a turnout of over two lakh workers. For now, the plan is to provide a bus in each assembly segment outside Lucknow to bring them to Lucknow.
The functionary also said that the choice of Kanshi Ram Memorial is significant, as the rally coincides with the death anniversary of the late social reformer. According to him, ”the memorial, formally called the Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Smarak Sthal, was developed on 60 acres of land during Mayawati’s tenure as chief minister. In its central atrium, 18-foot-high bronze statues of Mayawati and Kanshi Ram stand on a pedestal. The party is also planning another major rally next year at the Rama Bai Ambedkar Ground, also built during Mayawati’s tenure”.
UP-based political analyst Shilp Shikha Singh, an assistant professor at Giri Institute of Development Studies in Lucknow, told ThePrint, ”If the BSP has to revamp itself, it should re-invent itself. Politics is a game of adaptation and reinvention. The party needs to build a significant narrative, as the elections are becoming bipolar contests.”
“It should also start preparing a second-line leadership at the local level. If the BSP works on these two points, there are some chances for it to return to the game.”
According to Professor Kaviraj of Lucknow University’s political science department, “the BSP still has nearly 10 percent of the votes, which translates to an impact on over 20 percent of the state population. If the party can consolidate these votes, it can still hurt both the INDIA bloc and the NDA to some extent.”
“Moreover, the BSP cadre has been eager for the leadership to get active, as many other parties try to woo them during the election season.”
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Buddha Park controversies & reservations
In recent weeks, Mayawati has consistently been raising local issues, particularly concerning construction activities on the Buddha Park campuses.
After opposing a proposal to build a Shivalaya in Kanpur’s Buddha Park, she has objected to the administration’s plan to set up a senior citizen care centre and other facilities in Moradabad’s Buddha Park. Mayawati sought immediate intervention from the Yogi Adityanath-led government, giving the issue a political turn and weight.
She framed Moradabad’s Gautam Buddha Park as a centre of faith for Buddhists and the Bahujan Samaj Party, alleging that the municipal corporation building in the area has been causing public resentment, in a post on social media platform X. She urged the government to halt the project to safeguard peace and harmony.
She also demanded that the UP government present the correct facts in court to restore a 79 percent reservation for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes across the four prominent government medical colleges in the state. Before, she had been vocal on local issues, such as atrocities against Dalits and the rise in crimes.
Since the 2017 UP assembly elections, Mayawati has largely restricted her political activities to Lucknow, seldom addressing rallies or public meetings. The 9 October rally, hence, holds symbolic significance as her first major outreach to the cadre in several years.
The fall of BSP over a decade
The BSP, once a formidable player in Uttar Pradesh, with its social engineering model around Bahujans, has witnessed a steady decline over the past decade.
In the 2022 assembly elections, the party won just one seat out of 403, with its vote share dipping below 13 percent. The BSP even lagged behind small parties—Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, and Rashtriya Lok Dal, securing 12.9 percent of the votes, its lowest since 1993. At the time, the Brahmin card on which the BSP was working did not go in the party’s favour—of 65 Brahmin candidates, more than half could not save their deposits.
Still earlier, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where the BSP contested in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, there was a relative revival of the party, with wins from 10 seats. But the partnership collapsed, and the 2024 general elections pushed the BSP back into obscurity.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Manoj Kaka said it would not be easy for the BSP to revive at this stage.
“They are late to it. First of all, they should clarify whether they are anti-BJP or anti-Opposition. Their stand on many national issues is also unclear. So, the Samajwadi Party is not worried about their recent activities,” he said.
On the other hand, UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said, “Every party has a right to hold rallies, and they should. But as of now, we are confident that neither the SP nor the BSP can defeat the BJP. Even when these parties came together in 2019, the BJP still performed well. So, we are not worried.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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