Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati’s dramatic resignation from the Rajya Sabha, protesting what she said was the ruling BJP’s “anti-Dalit” politics and policies, had still not been accepted by the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Wednesday, but it is unlikely that this technicality would deter the veteran politician.

Mayawati’s term as Rajya Sabha MP expires in April next year. She has only 18 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, less than half the strength of 38 required to get her re-elected. Although Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad has already declared that he would get behenji elected from Bihar, the Dalit mass leader seems to have other plans for her future.

Speculation in BSP circles is that Maywati may contest the bypoll to the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, which will be vacated by sitting MP Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is now Deputy Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh. Maurya is likely to quit his seat after the election for the Vice-President is over on August 5. This would give Mayawati an opening to enter the Lok Sabha, where her party presently does not have a single MP.

The other course open to Mayawati is to start preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the theme of the BJP’s anti-Dalit policies. Owing to an anti-cow slaughter campaign largely seen to be driven by the BJP, Dalits, who are engaged in leather trade, have been adversely affected. There have also been instances of upper-caste attacks on Dalit settlements. A militant organisation, the Bhim Army, has also surfaced in western UP.

Through her much-publicised resignation, the BSP chief hopes to create the moral ground for the launch of a campaign to mobilise her vote-bank, which is being increasingly wooed by the BJP. The BJP has made a yet another concerted effort to garner the Dalit vote by fielding Ram Nath Kovind, a Kori from UP, as its official candidate for the President’s post.

Although her own community, the Jatavs who comprise the dominant caste among Dalits, are still standing behind her, the BJP had aggressively wooed the Pasis, Koris, Kurmis, Koeris and others to split her consolidated vote-bank in the Assembly elections held this year. Although Mayawati still managed to get 22 per cent of the vote share, her party fared badly, only managing to win 18 seats in the Assembly.

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