Uttar Pradesh Assembly election: Where does Dalit politics go from here?

BSP won just one of the 403 seats and secured a vote per cent of 12.8, down from 17 seats and a vote share of 22.2 per cent in 2017

Mayawati’s near-total elimination and the Azad Samaj Party (ASP)’s failure to open its account in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election have put Dalit politics at the crossroads in the state. Mayawati, who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — which articulated and advocated the rights and interests of Dalits and represented major Dalit sub-castes in UP since its electoral forays in the late ‘80s — was down to her most dismal showing. Her party won just one of the 403 seats and secured a vote per cent of 12.8, down from 17 seats and a vote share of 22.2 per