LUCKNOW: Fear of the Bahujan Samaj Party becoming a history and its chief Mayawati slipping into political oblivion looms large as the blue brigade faced a complete rout in Uttar Pradesh (UP) under the strong Modi-wave which took the State by storm post the Assembly election results on Saturday.
In the final tally, the BSP was relegated to the third position with just 19 seats in its kitty against its 2012 score of 80.
UP is seen as Mayawati’s stronghold, where she has ruled four times as chief minister. The story of her decimation was scripted in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when her party scored a duck even with a 20 per cent vote share.
This time around, the BSP managed to get over 22 per cent votes but the number of seats fell drastically to 19.
The results left the BSP chief baffled and she accused the winning side of manipulating the EVMs and demanded the election commission to order a re-poll in Uttar Pradesh.
Failing to come to terms with the reality of the day, the BSP chief even threatened to launch a nationwide agitation against the alleged ‘management’ of EVMs by the BJP, calling it the murder of democracy.
Ironically, the 2017 polls pushed the BSP chief to the verge of losing her party’s national status. Mayawati wondered how the BJP, which did not even allot a single ticket to a Muslim candidate, won so many seats in places with Muslim majority.
After the UP debacle, the BSP is now set to lose its sheen in Rajya Sabha as well.
Moreover, the BSP will also find it difficult to be heard in the Assembly with just 19 members after ruling the roost for nearly two decades in the corridors of power. While BSP had an absolute majority in 2007, it was the main opposition in 2012.