http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070011751
Dalits hopeful after Mayawati victory Quote " BSP is our party. We can't vote for anyone else. At the polling booth, our hands automatically reach out for the elephant. We don't know any candidate or caste. We only know BSP. " - Dalit voter Anupama Ramachandran, Manu Sharma Sachdev Friday, May 11, 2007 (Meerut) On Friday, Dalit voters watched with pride as Mayawati emerged victorious in the UP polls. The question that now arises is what does this win mean for the Dalits of Uttar Pradesh? On the ground in villages in and around Meerut people speak about how the consolidation of the Dalit force is complete because of Mayawati. They could not even think of voting for anybody else despite the traditional rivals, the Brahmin candidature, being given huge importance this election by their Behenji. ''BSP is our party. We can't vote for anyone else. At the polling booth, our hands automatically reach out for the elephant. We don't know any candidate or caste. We only know BSP,'' said a Dalit voter. BSP workers say that they worked day and night to mobilise their community. If a village had 100 Dalits, they saw to it that all 100 voted. ''We went door-to-door to get our voter out and organised it to ensure maximum voter percentage,'' said a BSP worker. And such an unprecedented turnout was only possible because the Election Commission handled the polls with an iron fist. The EC threw a khaki cordon across Uttar Pradesh, making it the most heavily guarded election ever, which in turn allowed more and more socially oppressed groups to fearlessly come out and vote. ''We thank the EC. It was so strict that there was no foul play,'' said a local. Once in the queue, the conclusion of the Dalit votes was forgone. In fact, experts say that the BSP is the only party this time that managed to retain its traditional vote bank in its entirety. The defining moment of the 2007 UP elections was the Ambedkar Park in Lucknow that lay in shambles during Mulayam's rule, but was all done up by the BSP just before the polls. However, that is precisely is a shortcoming of Mayawati's triumph, according to political experts. Mayawati may have created enduring symbols of Dalit empowerment across the state but does not have enough to show with regard to the improvement of the Dalit condition on the ground. Yet the Dalits of the state hope that with a decisive win in the polls for the BSP, there will be a turnaround in their situation. ''Till now she never got a chance. She came only for short stints. Now she has returned decisively, she will do in five years what others could not do in 50 years,'' said a Dalit voter.
