Click to play videoChennai: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and UP Chief Minister Mayawati is hoping to make an impact in the south through her campaigning. She believes that this will make her a true national leader as she hopes to become the prime minister in the near future.
Mayawati’s message to her new recruits is to take the BSP beyond just the Dalit vote.
“In Tamil Nadu along with the BSP you will also have to take the upper castes along with us that is the only way we can come to power in this state,” says Mayawati.
And in Tamil Nadu where Dalits form around 20 per cent of the population Mayawati's challenge is to first corner the Dalit vote.
In Karnataka the BSP did dent into the Congress's Dalit vote in the 2008 Assembly Elections and in Tamil Nadu she hopes to cash in on the failure and fighting between state level Dalit parties.
“The BSP will unite the three sections in which Dalits are divided into in the state and take other communities also along,” says BSP Principal State General Secretary P Siavkami.
Mayawati has yet to make her mark in the politics of the south and while the elephant may have few electoral rewards in Tamil Nadu, it is clear to at least have a party organisation in South India and that is important as Mayawati projects herself as a national leader hoping to become a Prime Minister.
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