Out of my MIND - The Mayawati-Rahul revolution

File photo of bare chested activists of the Republican Party of India (RPI) during a protest on February 3, 2010. Dalits have come a long way is making their presence felt in the Indian political scenario. The UP results in various polls has proved that Dalit vote cannot be ignored. Photo Courtesy: Reuters

Three years on, we have a different situation. Mayawati failed to cash in on her UP success in the 2009 elections. Her dreams of being PM at the head of a Third Coalition bit the dust. Her grandiloquent bonanza of statues also met a check from the courts. Rahul Gandhi did not pay heed to the chamchas who praised his 2007 UP election efforts and got his head down and worked away, meeting the many Kalawatis in rural UP. It paid off and the Congress got 20-odd seats.

The combination of Mayawati's triumph in 2007 and the UPA's in 2009 put several markers down in Indian politics. The BJP realised that electoral success depends on following the trends set by the two elections which they lost. Their narrow sectarian emphasis on Hindutva and the temple issue, the Varun Gandhi issue, were counter-productive and the nation drifted away from them.