New Delhi, May 11
With BSP supremo Mayawati all set to form the government in Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time having secured a waver thin majority on her own in the 403-member Assembly, her role in the upcoming election to the office of President in July cannot be undermined.

This assumes significance in the wake of the BSP's new found clout in the form of votes in the electoral college of the two Houses of Parliament and the state legislatures, particularly the critical state of UP.

Even though Congress leaders stress it is too early to offer any comment on this issue, the UPA and the Left parties on the one side and the NDA with the BJP in the vanguard on the other will have to work their strategies now that the outcome of the assembly elections in UP has stumped and stunned most political formations.

There is, however, an underlying feeling in the Congress that the BSP which has been supportive of the UPA at the Centre will be taken into confidence in hammering a consensus on the nominee for the highest constitutional post in the country. These are early days for undertaking any such exercise as Mayawati will be inexorably caught up with the government formation exercise in Lucknow.

It will be premature at this juncture to pinpoint what will Mayawati's preferences be with regard to the kind of person succeeding President A P J Abdul Kalam in Rashtrapati Bhawan. This is bound to unfold in the weeks ahead.

Union minister of state for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal while commending Mayawati's political astuteness of pursuing the path of appealing to a wider canvass of sections of people including the minorities and upper castes apart from her own constituents of Dalits and backwards which has paid rich dividends maintains that will be no problem in evolving a consensus on the presidential nominee.

Even as the BJP suffered a grievous blow to its ambitions in UP and compelled to introspect, the Congress felt its performance in UP was nothing dramatic but in keeping with expectations even if they have been knocked back as far as the arithmetic goes compared to last time.

For now the SP has been left to lick its wounds with the people squarely rejecting Mulayam Singh Yadav and his government which has been described by his opponents as a “goonda sarkar”. At the same time despite the stiff anti-incumbency factor, the SP has not been disgraced as it has finished second. His entreaties to the electorate to save him from being arrested by the Mayawati regime has fallen on deaf ears. Expectedly the SP chief has accused the Election Commission of India of running a parallel government in the month long Assembly elections spread over seven phases.

Keen UP watchers and political scientists insist that the BSP’s triumph is a “turning point in contemporary history as well as the politics of the country.” They alluded to the masterly strategic planning to enlarge on the base of the underprivileged by being inclusive and bringing in the fold other sections as well as the minority community. “This may well turn out to be the single most reference point in politics,” they observed.

They said Mayawati has changed the calculations aimed at bringing the Dalit leadership in the forefront which is a harbinger for a fresh chapter — a new coalition among the Brahmins, Dalits and the intermediary populace.

“There is a change in the perception of electoral behaviour in UP,” the political scientists averred.

Emphasising that “regional players were no longer regional players”, they felt that national parties will have to reinvent themselves.

The BJP on its part will have to bridge its credibility gap. “What has happened in UP is a revolution by consent and the Indian political process is changing very quickly. Discernible changes are visible in the political set up and the political class. The timing is important which is a pointer to mass democracy,” the scientists added.