One of India's most powerful and controversial political leaders could see her Bahujan Samaj Party become a national force if she wins a state election starting this week. Chief Minister Mayawati, who uses just the one name and hails from India's lowest caste, has ruled over the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and its 200 million inhabitants for five years. Now, the leader is working to convince voters to choose another five years of her politics.
Mayawati's larger-than-life presence has made her a folk hero to supporters and a national joke to her detractors. She has spent 560 million dollars on parks in which can be found 15-foot-high statues of herself alongside hundreds of statues of elephants -- the symbol of her BSP party. But following a ruling from India's election commission, both sets of statues have had to be covered up for fear that they would influence voters.
Chief Minister Mayawati's toughest competition is likely to come from the middle-caste Samajwadi Party, whose candidate said of Mayawati's rule, "there can be no government more cruel than this one." In Uttar Pradesh, the health and education systems lie in tatters. And while Mayawati's supporters say she is their defence against the prejudice which keeps them in poverty, a leaked US embassy cable called her a "virtual paranoid dictator" who once sent a private jet to Mumbai to pick up a new pair of sandals.
