Turning politics upside down

But she has emerged as one of India's most influential politicians, with hero status among India's 170 million low-caste Dalits - the "untouchables" of the ancient Hindu caste system.

Mayawati demonstrated her political clout when she led a charge to topple India's Congress Party-led government in a no-confidence vote last Tuesday. Although the government survived the vote by a slim majority, Mayawati emerged at the helm of a new Indian opposition movement amid the political realignments that followed. This new grouping already is campaigning against the government's handling of inflation and its decision to press ahead with a controversial nuclear co-operation pact with the US.

"The government won the vote of confidence but lost the trust of the nation," says Mayawati, 52, a former school teacher who is unmarried. This "third front" in Indian politics will challenge both the Congress-led governing coalition and the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the lead-up to India's next general election scheduled for May.

Some analysts say the new grouping could give Mayawati the national profile she needs to pursue a long-held ambition to become India's first "untouchable" prime minister.

"The formation of this new opposition front in the run-up to a general election is of great significance," says Mahesh Rangarajan, a Delhi University political analyst.

"I definitely see Mayawati as the spearhead of this new alliance that will threaten the Congress among farmers and under classes that have traditionally been its [Congress'] electoral backbone."

Mayawati, a member of the lowly Chamar, or leather-working subcaste, was identified as a political talent and mentored by Kanshi Ram, a Dalit politician who founded the Bahujan Samaj (Majority of the People) Party.

For 20 years Mayawati has skilfully cultivated support among poor and marginalised groups in India's political heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, home to about 185 million people. (If Uttar Pradesh were a separate country, it would vie with Brazil for the rank of fifth most populated nation in the world, just behind Indonesia and ahead of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Russia.)

Mayawati became the first low-caste politician to head a state government in India when she briefly became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1995, a post she has now held four times in 13 years.

"She is a classic underdog story," says Maxine Loynd, an Australian National University researcher studying Uttar Pradesh politics. "Mayawati herself comes from a community that is oppressed in so many ways."

India's Dalits have suffered centuries of discrimination under the Hindu caste system and the community remains blighted by poverty and prejudice. Caste discrimination is still rampant, especially in rural areas.

Research by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights found low caste people are denied access to common water sources in nearly half of all Indian villages. In a third of village tea shops, they are denied seating and made to use separate cups. In 38 per cent of schools, Dalit children are forced to sit separately while eating. Dalits are also prohibited from entering about two-thirds of all Hindu temples.

Loynd says Mayawati's political success has been the source of great pride for Dalits. "Her party is the first one to fully represent them," she said. "Part of that has been raising the self esteem of Dalits. Now they do not have to have some person from a higher caste, or higher class, representing them."

Mayawati is affectionately known as "behenji" - honoured sister - by her millions of followers, and electoral analysts say she has the most loyal vote banks of any political party in India. Dr S.S. Jodhka, the director of the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, said it is rare for a politician to garner the level of trust that Mayawati enjoys with her Dalit constituency.

"Mayawati has been one of the most successful politicians in India in the past 20 years," he says. "Dalits see her as someone who can bring about change. They have a confidence in her which they don't have in any other politicians."

Sumitra Kumar, who earns about $100 a month sweeping and swabbing floors in New Delhi, is one of the millions of poor Dalits enjoying Mayawati's political success. "I think Mayawati is nice and she's helping the poor a lot," she says.

In the past few years, Mayawati has managed to broaden her appeal and win support beyond low-caste groups. In Uttar Pradesh, she forged a "rainbow coalition" of Dalits, upper-caste Brahmins and Muslims. This was dubbed the BMW Alliance because it embraced Brahmins, Muslims and Weaker sections of society. This political strategy resembles the cross-section of support that sustained the Congress Party's dominance of Indian politics for decades. However, there is a crucial difference - an untouchable woman is at the top.

"Being a Dalit and a woman in a country where those are marginalised and excluded groups increasingly conscious of their electoral strength is a unique selling point," says Rangarajan.

Robin Jeffrey, an India expert at the Australian National University, says Mayawati's political career is a testament to how much Indian society has changed in the 60 years since independence. The first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh after independence was a high caste Brahmin but politicians from lower and lower caste strata have assumed the job since.

"You can just see the political system broadening out through these chief ministers … and then you come to Mayawati," says Jeffrey. "As a political symbol she's absolutely out of the box."

Detractors say Mayawati lacks a coherent policy platform and accuse her of ruthlessly exploiting a crude brand of caste politics. They argue caste-based parties like Mayawati's exist primarily to benefit a narrow section of society and are often vehicles to corruptly enrich party leaders.

Mayawati is also accused of dumbing down the business of politics. She has little time for India's English-language media and rarely grants interviews to foreign journalists. Unlike most senior politicians in India she speaks exclusively in Hindi and her English is poor.

Mayawati's career has been plagued by serious allegations of corruption. Despite her lowly origins, police investigations show she owns dozens of properties, including farms, houses and shops.

She has also been accused of doing favours for developers, including the approval of a massive shopping complex near India's most famous monument, the Taj Mahal. The plan was eventually scrapped and Mayawati denied any wrongdoing.

Uttar Pradesh politics is notorious for corruption and the allegations levelled against Mayawati are replicated across the political spectrum.

She can also be ostentatious. Mayawati celebrated her 50th birthday with 30,000 guests, 100,000 boxes of Indian sweets, and 5000 bouquets. In the Uttar Pradesh capital, Lucknow, last month, a three-metre statue of Mayawati was pulled down and replaced by a four-metre version.

The original had been unveiled just six weeks earlier but Mayawati did not like it. "Madam did not like the face and body of her earlier statue so we are putting up a new one on her orders," said an engineer involved in the operation which was carried out under cover of darkness.

There were reports that Mayawati was also furious that her trademark handbag was missing from the original.

She has commissioned several statues of herself and other Dalit leaders. When challenged about this practice she said it was "outdated" to erect statues posthumously. Mayawati's constituents do not seem to care much about allegations of corruption and apparent wastefulness.

"The ostentation is part of her appeal," says Jeffrey. "The communities she comes from are chuffed to see her having fancy birthday cakes, wearing lovely clothes and putting up statues and opening parks. Why wouldn't you be proud?"

In May last year, Mayawati won a thumping election victory in Uttar Pradesh and immediately made plans for even higher office. "My ultimate goal is Delhi," she said in her first interview following the triumph.

Could Mayawati realise her dream of becoming India's first Dalit PM?

"Once upon a time you would have said there was no chance," says Loynd. "But given the fragmentation of Indian politics, Mayawati might become the best option to lead some sort of coalition. It is certainly conceivable."

It is unlikely any party will win an outright majority in next year's general election. Pragmatic coalition politics, therefore, will probably determine who is the next prime minister.

Mayawati's dominance in Uttar Pradesh will help her. It has the largest block in India's 543-member national Parliament and seven of India's 15 prime ministers have come from that state.

Mayawati's BSP currently has 21 members in national parliament but, so far, her electoral success outside of her home state has been limited. Analysts think Mayawati's party will have an electoral impact in 10 of India's 28 states.

But Jeffrey points out that several previous Indian prime ministers, such as Deve Gowda and Narasimha Rao, had much smaller political support bases than Mayawati.

"She only has got to come back after the election with 60 or 70 seats and she could be the compromise choice, even if another party has a larger conglomeration of seats," he said.

Whatever the outcome, Mayawati looks set to be a major force in Indian politics for some time yet.

Matt Wade is the Herald's New Delhi correspondent.