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Mayawati, firebrand to mellow brand
Published on Sat, May 12, 2007 at 00:41, Updated on Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 14:40 in 
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ELEPHANT AHEAD: The BSP has won 211seats in the Assembly and it won't need allies.
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New Delhi: Once upon a time Mayawati was an angry young woman, a firebrand championing the Dalit movement in pink chiffon suits.
Mentored by Dalit Sikh Kanshi Ram, Mayawati learnt the tricks of the realpolitik. Mayawati first became CM in 1995 but the Samajwadi Party was never going to be an easy partner.
Then in 1998 she allied with the BJP, with a six-month rotation of Chief Minister's seat with Kalyan Singh. As expected, the coalition fell apart within months.
Once again in 2002, Mayawati became the Chief Minister and this time her own MLAs ditched her and her ally BJP left abandoned the government.
Her three terms so far add up to less then two years. But it’s no sorry saga, as it appears. Under her orders, the BSP has broken bread with the Congress, Samajwadi party and with the BJP.
With each failure, her allies have become weaker and Maya's became mature and more pragmatic. Today her transformation is complete and the failures of the last 15 years have had a humbling effect.
“Pehle naara thaa, tilak tarazu aur talvaar, inko maaro jute chaar, Ab naara hain, tilak tarazu kalam kataar, inka karo shishtachaar, " says a BSP supporter. (Once we said slam the upper castes, now we say work with them)
In her latest innings, which she played for the first time without her mentor around, without the ponytail, without the pink chiffon suits, without the anti-upper caste rhetoric.
In the current elections she gave roughly 100 seats to Dalits, another 100+ seats to OBCs, 60 odd seats to Muslims and over a 120 seats to upper castes
Once upon a time Mayawati was an angry young woman, but not any more.
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