India, Feb. 16 -- For all political parties in Uttar Pradesh (UP), social engineering became the watchword after it catapulted Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati to power in 2007.

The formation of an independent government by a 23-year-old Dalit party had created history of sorts for two reasons - the BSP broke the 14-year-long coalition jinx, stabilising the politics in the state. Second, it punctured the 'Mandal-Kamandal' narrative dominating the political landscape of UP since 1989, forcing every political party to adopt her tested formula of building a caste coalition.

Her social engineering experiment was actually a replay of the Congress's social coalition of Dalit-Muslim-Brahmins, which, after its collapse, had drifted in ...