New Delhi: As counting for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh is underway, the state is witnessing a neck-to-neck battle between the Samajwadi-Congress Alliance (INDI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, from putting up a decent performance in the last general elections in the state by winning 10 seats and stitching an alliance with arch-rival Samajwadi Party, the Mayawati-led BSP drew a blank in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, dealing a severe blow to its reputation of representing the voice of 'Dalits' in the state.

The selection of candidates by the BSP reflected its attempt to doom the chances of the opposition grouping, while the Samajwadi Party emerging as the single largest party against the BJP in the state shows that Mayawati's party has lost its electoral charm.

In 2014 general elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won a decent 10 of the 38 seats that it contested under the alliance. It emerged as the second-largest party, BSP polled over 19 per cent of votes which has remained loyal to Mayawati almost all through, by maintaining her relevance in UP's electoral politics, especially as it has been considered a transferable vote.

However, exuding confidence in itself, the BSP chief this year decided to go solo and now faces an uphill task where the party candidates have either drifted away or shown signs of it.

Other than this, the political opponents have also branded Mayawati's party as the 'B' team of the saffron party based on the public stand taken by her on various issues.

In the recent Rajya Sabha elections, her lone MLA Uma Shankar Singh vote for the BJP further putting a stamp on the accusations.

The BSP's core Dalit vote bank makes it relevant in the electoral politics in the state which sends a maximum of 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. The Dalits community constitutes of over 20 per cent of UP electorates, and the BJP is trying to neutralise her influence by making a fellow Dalit Baby Rani Maurya a senior minister in the state and Akhilesh Yadav roping in Chandra Sekhar Azad "Ravan" to diminish Mayawati's political influences.

The current results show Mayawati's BSP has lost its relevance. Mayawati has been neither a constituent of the ruling NDA alliance nor of the opposition INDIA coalition and already decided to go alone in the upcoming polls.

(With inputs from PTI)