Mayawati’s Third Brahmin Push: Reviving 2007 Coalition for UP 2027

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati has reached out to the Brahmin community for the third time this year, reviving the Dalit-Brahmin social coalition that helped her party form a majority government in Uttar Pradesh in 2007. In a series of posts on X on Monday, Mayawati said the BSP’s decision to select candidates from upper-caste communities, particularly Brahmins, has unsettled rival parties, especially the Samajwadi Party.

“Ever since the BSP started selecting candidates keeping in mind the participation of upper-caste communities, especially Brahmins, there is a visible restlessness among the Opposition parties, particularly the Samajwadi Party,” she wrote in Hindi. Recalling the 2007 victory, she added that the possibility of a repeat of that result, when the Brahmin community contributed to the BSP forming a majority government, appears natural. “The Brahmin community’s interests are secure only in the BSP,” she said.

Mayawati’s latest appeal follows the BJP’s Cabinet expansion last month, which sought caste balance by including leaders from OBC, Dalit, and Brahmin communities ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls. Her remarks target a community that has largely supported the BJP over the past decade.

This is the BSP chief’s third major outreach to Brahmins in 2026. In January, on her birthday, she reminded voters of the representation Brahmins enjoyed during BSP governments and alleged that the community was being neglected under the BJP. Last month, after the state Cabinet expansion, she cited an attack on a BJP youth leader from the Brahmin community in Lucknow and said Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh are “not only neglected but also quite insecure.” She also noted that Brahmin MLAs from various parties expressed concern over neglect and crimes against the community during the winter session of the UP Assembly.

These interventions carry a consistent message: despite the BJP’s dominance among upper castes, some Brahmins feel increasingly marginalised. For the BSP, which has been reduced to a single MLA in the Assembly and no MP from the state, rebuilding a broader social coalition is a political necessity. However, the challenge is greater than in 2007, as the BJP has since consolidated a large part of the upper-caste vote. Mayawati’s strategy aims to recreate the alliance that once brought her party to power, but the electoral arithmetic has changed significantly.