With no seats in Lok Sabha, will Mayawati's last-ditch effort work this time around?

In the 2014 general election, the BJP had won 71 seats, ally Apna Dal bagged 2, Samajwadi Party 5 and the Congress 2, while the BSP drew a blank. In the 2017 elections, it could collect only a measly 19 seats.

Lucknow: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president Chandrababu Naidu being welcomed by BSP president Mayawati at her residence in Lucknow, Saturday, May 18, 2019 (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: The concept of zero is an Indian invention according to historians of Mathematics. It is the basis of mathematics as we know it today and it has revolutionized everything in the modern world as all sciences are based on mathematics in one way or the other. That said, zero also leads to infinity. Take for instance the number of seats secured by Mayawati’s party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Yes it was precisely zero. In the 2014 general election, the BJP had won 71 seats, ally Apna Dal bagged 2, Samajwadi Party 5 and the Congress 2, while the BSP drew a blank. In the 2017 assembly elections, it could collect only a measly 19 seats. However, the exit polls conducted by various news channels indicate that the number this time around could be much higher. While it may not reach stratospheric figures, it will still be sizeable enough to cut into the inroads made by BJP in the northern belt. The SP-BSP alliance is projected to win over 40 seats making the BJP look for other states to cut the deficit. The dust is yet to settle down on this election; in fact, the party has just begun. After the bluster of the high-octane political campaigning that saw heavy mudslinging  and slandering in India’s largest & most crucial state, it is only after the last vote in each constituency is counted that the results can be treated as final. Starting as a fledgling party just a few years ago, and groomed by the veteran Kanshi Ram, Mayawati had become a formidable figure with a larger-than-life image in the country’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh. This is a state which justifiably boasts of giving the largest number of MPs as well as the highest number PMs to this vast country. Its importance in the national scheme cannot be discounted by any yardstick or barometer. While it remains to be seen if the pollsters had it right, what emerges from the numbers available so far is that through a strategic alliance with the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati has been able to cut into swathes of saffron land. She had adopted a wait-and watch-policy till the Lok Sabha election results are announced on May 23. Let us not forget she had ambitions of becoming Prime Minister this time around.