The verdict that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati (aka Behenji) won in 2007 was not just an indictment of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rule or the anti-incumbency factor, it was also a vote against the lawlessness and widespread thuggery prevalent in the state. Mulayam’s government was not only anti-Dalit, it also had an anti-Brahmin tone. His love for Kalyan Singh antagonised the minorities. It was against this background that Behenji’s call for a “Sarvajan Samaj” and slogans like