Mayawati’s chances dim

Aditi Phadnis is right in observing in her column, “Can Mayawati storm back to power in UP?” (February 25), that a victory — if at all — for Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would be less about her views on social reform and more about the sins of omission of her rivals.

The BSP chief is adept at playing the caste card to her political advantage during elections, but it is simply because she wants to come to power in Uttar Pradesh at any cost.

Mayawati (pictured) has so far been making extensive use of the caste coalition of Brahmins and Dalits to reap a rich political harvest. But despite her best efforts, she had to be content with 80 seats out of 403 in the state Assembly in 2012. Worse, her party failed to open its account in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

What does all this indicate? Voters are no longer fooled by caste-based appeals