The BSP is a party that has internalised well the properties of its symbol. Like the elephant, the party has walked slowly towards its goal. The Dalit-upper caste combination that has flipped the party to power in UP is not an overnight phenomena but one that has been put together carefully over the last two-and-a-half years.
While since 2003, the party had been organising swabhimaan (self respect) sammelans to extol Dalits to come out and vote, the change to a more inclusive approach came in June 2005 when the party organised its first Brahmin sammelan in Lucknow. This was followed by vaishya sammelans.

Leadership issue
And as is wont with party, there was no muddle of projected leaders. While Mayawati remained the symbol of Dalit assertion, Sudhir Mishra, the party’s national general secretary became the party’s Brahmin face and national spokesperson Sudhir Goel was the vaishya symbol.
The slogans were equally clear: “Haathi nahi Ganesh hai, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai” and “Bahujan, Mahajan Bhai Bhai, Lala nahi Lal hai”.
Mayawati’s aim for the upper caste vote was bound to find its mark without antagonising her traditional votebank.. For the Dalit supporters, the Brahmin is not the oppressor for the distance between the two is too wide to permit any contact. Rather it is the intermediate land owning castes that are viewed as the opposition. 
The party’s election strategy also ensured that no energy was to be frittered on by elections and municipal polls. Instead a year ago the first list of 100 candidates for the Vidhan Sabha elections was declared. There were no apologies for the charge of selling tickets, instead Mayawati made it clear that the party needed money to fight the election.
And while all parties were struggling to calm disgruntled ticket seekers, Mayawati was off on a punishing campaign trail. Her speeches were unimaginative and more in the nature of a teacher’s list of do’s and don’ts. She had little patience with on stage sycophants who interrupted her monotone with “Behenji zindabad” slogans but the message she hammered was clear: “Come out and vote so that I can put Mulayam, Amar and his like in jail.” And in a state where in the common man’s eyes law and order has hit a nadir, even many non BSP supporters were paying attention.

Anti-incumbency
In this the party was also helped by the perception that it was best placed to tap the anti-incumbency sentiment.
The BSP election campaign was a low key, sustained drive. There were no glitzy television ads, no fancy CDs. Like always, there wasn’t even a manifesto or star campaigners. A booklet with anti-Muslim statements attributed to the party was not refuted from any public platform. There was just a complaint to the EC as the party went about its work.
All this was supplemented by the Election Commission’s stringent security measures that ensured that dedicated BSP supporters came out to vote in large numbers.
And on Friday, it became clear that these factors had helped Mayawati’s elephant to squash the Opposition.

FACTFILE

People failed to understand our policies.
  --Mulayam Singh
    Outgoing Chief Minister

After 1989, it is the first time that a single party is winning majority. So we hope that the new government will take up people's issues.
    --Sitaram Yechury,
    CPM leader

People have rejected outright both SP and BJP. The results have exposed Mulayam and his friend Amar Singh who never cared for the downtrodden.
    --Dipankar Bhattacharya
       CPI-ML general secretary

It is time for introspection for all of us. We have not been able to live up to the expectations of the people.
    --Shatrugan Sinha, BJP

We have lost power, but not the base. Our vote share has actually increased from 28 per cent last time to 31 per cent this time. Anti-incumbency factor must have worked against us. 
   --S Bangarappa,
    Samajwadi Party State president

It is a lesson to the national parties for their arrogance.
   --H D Kumaraswamy,
      Karnataka Chief Minister