Bitter battle in India's political life

By John Zubrzycki

NEW DELHI (JP): Two women, both outcastes from Indian society, are about to do battle for control of Uttar Pradesh, India's most politically important state.

Phoolan Devi, better known as India's bandit queen, is preparing to take on the 39-year old Mayawati, the first female chief minister from the dalit or untouchable class of Indian society, in by-elections due to be held by the end of the year.

Mayawati came to power in a palace coup on June 3 after her party withdrew its support for the minority Samajawadi Party government of ousted chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

But the diminutive Yadav, a former wrestler with considerable political muscle in the form of hired thugs to intimidate his opponents, is determined to fight another bout.

In a direct attack at Mayawati's lower caste support base, Yadav has enlisted Phoolan Devi, one of India's most controversial and outspoken political figures, to stand against her in the forthcoming state assembly by-elections.

Devi, whose struggles against her upper caste enemies are the subject of the controversial film The Bandit Queen has been irked by the Uttar Pradesh government's request for a review of the cases against her.

The reformed dacoit or outlaw, who owes her freedom to Yadav, says she is ready to take on Mayawati in the interests of social justice.

Devi is confident that Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with only 57 seats in the 425-member state assembly will not last its full term.

The BSP's survival depends entirely on the Hindu- fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is supporting it from the outside rather than entering into a formal coalition.

Although both parties are united in their determination to keep Yadav out of power, they represent diametrically opposed sections of the electorate.

Representing the underprivileged or lower castes, the BSP has always campaigned strongly against the upper caste nexus of Brahmins (priests), Banias (merchants) and Thakurs (landowners), which represents the backbone of BJP's support.

The outcome of this fragile alliance has implications not only for the complex caste-based power structure of Uttar Pradesh, but also for the right wing BJP's prospects in the general elections expected in April next year.

Uttar Pradesh sends 84 members to the Lok Sabha or Lower House and has supplied seven out of India's ten prime ministers. With the so-called backward and scheduled castes making up 51 percent of the state's population of 146 million, control over this crucial vote bank is considered essential for capturing political power in New Delhi.

It was the struggle for control of this important electoral base that was behind BSP's withdrawal of support for Yadav whose party has the backing of the state's Moslem and rural communities.

For the BJP, its alliance with Mayawati presents an unique opportunity to broaden its appeal. The party's strong anti-Moslem campaign culminating in the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh which it claimed was built on the site of a Hindu temple, attracted many middle class voters.

But once the religious fervor died, the BJP realized it needed the support of the numerically strong lower castes who traditionally viewed the party as socially divisive.

By aligning itself with the lower caste base of the BSP, the party hopes to project a less fundamentalist face and attain a Pan-Indian appeal so far only enjoyed by the ruling Congress Party.

The BJP has 119 seats in the Lok Sabha and has set itself a target of winning 200 in the next election. With the support of regional parties, which now would be easier to secure after its pro-BSP stand, the party believes it can scrape through with the 260-odd seats required for a majority.

But as political scientist Rajni Kothari says, the BJP's gamble may eventually boomerang on the party since its alliance with the BSP testifies to its willingness to dilute its ideology in the name of pragmatism.

"I don't see a tremendous future for the BJP emerging from all this. The BJP is being branded as an opportunistic party and even as it is trying to open up a new social base for itself, it is not likely to be trusted by the Dalits and even the backwards," Prof Kothari says.

Meanwhile, the politically inexperienced Mayawati is finding that her arranged marriage comes with a costly dowry.

Her party has already had to back down on the issue of quotas for Moslems. She wanted 15 percent of education and government seats reserved for them. The BJP slashed this to 8.44 percent.

At the district level, sections of Mayawati's party representing specific castes are up in arms over the BJP's refusal to allow them a greater share in the state administration.

With both parties determined to pursue their own interests, more clashes are bound to occur. The key question in this complex struggle for power is whether Mayawati's main adversary is the bandit queen or the BJP.