Mayawati springs a political heir

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday announced she had chosen her political heir, identifying him as a person belonging to 'chamar' subcaste of the Scheduled Castes and as someone 18 to 20 years younger to her.
The nameless announcement, which she claimed to have put in an envelope and handed over to two confidants to be opened at an opportune time, is loaded with enough political significance to set the political bazaar abuzz.
Mayawati told a massive workers' gathering in Lucknow that she would not name the heir lest the rivals start creating roadblocks for him.
Her statement has triggered a wave of speculation within the Dalit outfit and outside, with the name of a legislator being bandied about.
Significantly, to many it signalled a change of choice. Mayawati had in August 2006, after being re-elected as the chief of BSP, publicly stated that someone belonging to the same caste sub-group 30-35 years younger than her could take over the reins in the event of a contingency.
While the BSP boss indicated that the dramatic announcement was influenced by apprehensions of her arrest and to guard against a vacuum if anything happened to her, the urgency of a barely 52-yearold political entrepreneur to name a heir is being viewed in the political context of Lok Sabha polls. It is seen as her shrewd gambit in pursuance of another audacious political bid __ prime ministership.
At the rally, the Dalit leader announced her candidature for the top job for the first time after her central offensive against UPA last month and alliance with 'third front' raised an anticipation that she had her eyes set high.
Mayawati is marshalling resources for an ambitious strike. The BSP leader, it is felt, is consolidating her 'core support base' __ Dalits and that too its most powerful sub-caste of UP and north __ to rebuff the rivals' charges that the 'sarvjan' experiment had diluted founder Kanshi Ram's agenda.
Coming amid BSP's attempt to net upper castes, the announcement that the party would remain in the hands of an SC marks a confidence that reminding the world of its intrinsically Dalit character would not hurt its outreach to Brahmins, Vaishyas and others. As BSP footsoldiers were told to kickstart the Maya-for-PM campaign, the UP chief minister appeared to be playing to the pan-Indian Dalit community via a well thought-out script.