Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Kumari
It was an image dripping with symbolism — and cake crumbs. When Mayawati Kumari, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, turned 52 in January, aides and civil servants took turns to finger-feed her scoops of a 115-pound (52 kg) chocolate birthday cake at a party in the state capital Lucknow. The image of mostly high-caste men feeding a Dalit (formerly "Untouchable") woman was an incredibly powerful one in a country where discrimination based on caste has been banned for more than half a century but where many of the old barriers and prejudices endure. Just in case Mayawati's statement of arrival was missed by anyone, she turned up later that day at a five-star hotel in the Indian capital New Delhi for a second celebration. "If you've come from nothing and then make money, it's a very understandable psychological drive to want to openly spend it," says Chandra Bhan Prasad, a pioneering Dalit newspaper columnist. That's especially true, says Prasad, if you feel unwelcome by the traditional ruling classes: "There is still a feeling among many in the upper-caste Hindu élite that she's not acceptable."
That may have to change — and fast. Mayawati's message on her birthday, as it has been since her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won a clear majority in India's biggest state 10 months ago, is that she will use her popularity there to become an important player on the national stage at the next general election. Given the fractured nature of Indian politics, that poll, due by early 2009 at the latest, is unlikely to produce any single winner. If Mayawati and the BSP can win 40 or 50 seats in the 552-member lower house — a real possibility given that Uttar Pradesh's 110 million voters elect 80 of those members — she would be well placed to decide which of India's two big parties, the Indian National Congress and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, should lead a new government, or perhaps even wangle the premiership for herself.
The fact that Mayawati is seriously discussed as a possible next Prime Minister is evidence of how far she has come. Born one of nine children to a low-level civil servant and an illiterate mother, Mayawati used her street smarts and the affirmative-action programs designed to help India's downtrodden to study teaching and then law. She joined the BSP in 1984 and, as the head of unstable coalitions, went on to become Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister for three brief stints before last year's breakout victory when the party won outright.
Mayawati's master stroke was to drop her weary slogans calling on her supporters to use their shoes to "beat" upper-caste Brahmins and to reach out to them; many feel as sidelined by the middle-ranking castes who control much of government these days as do the Dalits. That unlikely coalition, key to Congress's decades of dominance in Indian politics, is now working for Mayawati. "The difference with Congress is that they were using Dalits but keeping them on a bottom level, whereas we are all on an equal platform with a Dalit leader at the top," says Satish Chandra Mishra, the BSP's secretary general. "That is getting a tremendous response around the country."
What sort of a national leader would Mayawati make? It is difficult to pin down her policies, says political analyst Swapan Dasgupta, "because she has this arbitrary style." Since taking over in Uttar Pradesh again, Mayawati, who has called herself a "living goddess," has ordered half a dozen statues of herself and is building a $100 million park to commemorate BSP founder Kanshi Ram. She also wants to spend billions of dollars on a highway running beside the Ganges and has plans for a shopping mall next to the Taj Mahal. Such huge projects appeal to her supporters not only because they provide thousands of jobs but because, like her birthday parties, they project an image of Dalit power and wealth.
To Mayawati's critics, statues and megaprojects are simply evidence of her vanity and opportunities for kickbacks. India's Central Bureau of Investigation has an ongoing investigation into Mayawati's "disproportionate assets." Mayawati herself has filed papers with election officials indicating she owns 72 properties and has 54 bank accounts. Those records show Mayawati's wealth increased by more than 30 times over the past four years to $13 million — a fact she puts down to generous supporters who have showered her with gifts of jewelry, art and cash. Her aides say that the gifts are all fully recorded and accounted for, and stopped the moment she became Chief Minister. "These are absolutely bulls___ allegations," says Mishra. "She is not guilty of anything." (Mayawati declined numerous requests for an interview with TIME.)
In the past couple of months, as speculation has turned to the possibility of an early election, Mayawati has held a series of rallies around the country and has begun testing her political weight, perhaps to see how far she can go. On March 31, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi criticized Mayawati for not running Uttar Pradesh properly. Yet on her birthday, both Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in China at the time, had made sure to call Mayawati to wish her well. After all, they might need her support in a matter of months.