Amar Singh Samajwadi Party "The BSP is a non-political force   that hobnobs with communalists. They are opportunists."

K.N. Tripathi UP Speaker (BJP) "Mayawati, having tasted blood, does not want to give up power and position so easily."

Tariq Anwar Congress "The BSP and BJP have absolutely no principles and just want power at any cost."

It is this smug realisation that encourages the Kanshi-Mayawati duo to be reckless and even outrageous. Kanshi Ram's demand to unilaterally alter the terms of the March 18 agreement with the BJP was partly brinkmanship. But it was triggered substantially by a desire to exploit apparent contradictions within the BJP. There are some in the saffron camp who believe that the BJP vote has reached saturation point in Uttar Pradesh. It has remained more or less static in the 32-34 per cent range in the parliamentary and assembly elections held between 1991 and 1996. This group, dominated in the main by upper castes like Lalji Tandon and Kalraj Mishra who lack a popular base, feel that the BJP can afford to lose some of its traditional supporters for the sake of an assured BSP support in each constituency. Consequently, they are impatient with former chief minister Kalyan Singh's bid to seek a wider constituency among the Backward Castes and the Jats of western Uttar Pradesh.

In the hard game of electoral politics, an alliance with the BSP is the easy option for the BJP even if it results in the demoralisation of the party's traditional supporters. Last week, Kalyan Singh tested the waters by offering to step down from the leadership if the party found his presence inconvenient. But with the solid support of at least 85 per cent of the BJP's 176 MLAs, the last thing the high command wanted was a public airing of private doubts. In any case, the BJP was miffed over Kanshi Ram's hamhanded bid to create a misunderstanding between Vajpayee and Advani on the Speaker issue.

Kalyan could also afford to call the BSP's bluff because he is aware that the alliance is not a one-way traffic. While national parties can definitely benefit from the BSP in this era of unstable coalitions, the BSP too needs allies for sustenance. Going it alone in the 1996 Lok Sabha election, the BSP managed only six seats out of 85 in Uttar Pradesh. This year, when it broke its alliance with the Akali Dal (Badal) during the assembly election in Punjab, it barely made a mark. Likewise, its well-publicised attempts to enter Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh on its own steam have come to nought. The BSP has a stable vote in its areas of strength, but this is inadequate to win it seats on its own. Just as others need the BSP, the BSP needs allies to realise its dream of wielding power. "The BSP leaders must realise that coalition means compromise and not surrender," says Kalyan Singh.

In Uttar Pradesh, what ultimately binds the BSP and BJP is a common fear of Mulayam. President's rule is seen as Mulayam's proxy rule. Mayawati and Kanshi Ram could not have forgotten the lessons from the previous round of governor raj. Bureaucrats and thana-level officers were transferred across the state at Mulayam's bidding. Says a senior bureaucrat: "The Backward Castes have traditionally wielded the stick in Uttar Pradesh. And if there is governor's rule before elections, much of Mayawati's vote bank will not even be able to step out to vote."

If it is convergence of interests that dictates alliances, why have the other parties failed to get the BSP to conduct itself in more conventional terms? How do Advani and Vajpayee, who are otherwise sticklers for ideology, manage to look the other way as Kanshi Ram describes the party as a "poisonous cobra"? Why does the Congress tolerate being called the "B-team of Brahminism"? Why is it so indulgent of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati's vitriol against Mahatma Gandhi?

To some extent, the answer is located in the liberal conscience. In the post-Mandal world of affirmative action, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati can get away by being outrageous and irresponsible because they claim to speak for a section of society that has seen its dignity repeatedly violated.

The BSP guilt trips the liberal intelligentsia into believing that universal principles and simple laws of political conduct are inapplicable to it because these norms are a function of centuries of Manuwadi conditioning. Even the media has acquiesced in Kanshi Ram's bullying tactics. When the BSP supremo assaulted cameramen and reporters in Delhi late last year, there were only murmurs of protest. When Mayawati recently extracted Rs 30 lakh from the state exchequer for renovating a bungalow on Mall Avenue, Lucknow, where she will live after September 21, it was glossed over in embarrassment. The fact that a sum of Rs 70 lakh was earlier spent on it did not warrant the whole thing becoming a monumental scandal. When out and out caste considerations dictated the transfer and posting of officials in Uttar Pradesh, there was only passing indignation. Kanshi Ram and Mayawati have successfully turned the world upside down. They have made their own laws.

It is this reluctance to play by the rules of coalition politics that has earned the BSP the reputation of being unreliable and irresponsible. Some deft backroom manoeuvres can perhaps keep the BJP-BSP alliance going for some time, but in the long term, the arrangement is bound to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. But even if it survives the recent convulsions, a period of instability can safely be predicted for Uttar Pradesh. Should a BJP chief minister be sworn in on September 21, the Kanshi-Mayawati duo will play the role of spoilers. If the new man tries to break out of the BSP's clutches, Mayawati will break the government without any hesitation. Without power and influence -- exercised directly or otherwise -- the BSP duo is just not interested in the principle of fairness.

Call them unscrupulous, call them unethical and denounce them as unprincipled, but Kanshi Ram and Mayawati have never concealed their audacious opportunism from public gaze. "Once we get power," Kanshi Ram declared a few years ago, "we must not at any cost allow the Brahmin-Bania press, the Brahmins, or for that matter anyone else or their stooges to destroy Ambedkarisation." It is a promise they have lived up to handsomely. Or, as the huge hoarding of a charging rhinoceros in Lucknow's Hazratganj crossing puts it evocatively: "We can't help if others look small." It's a thought.

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