LUCKNOW: The big electoral puzzle in the country’s biggest state, Uttar Pradesh, just got bigger with reports indicating that Mayawati’s winning Dalit-Brahmin alliance may be fraying at the edges. As it is, estimates vary wildly about the electoral outcome in this state, and the latest trend is making predictions even more difficult to make.

The Dalit-Brahmin alliance was the winning combination for the Congress when it once held sway in UP. Since 2007, Mayawati had successfully stitched up a similar combination by giving 86 of the 402 BSP tickets to Brahmins in the state assembly election — the biggest caste block for BSP — which was preceded by a number of special meetings to send out the message of Brahmin-Dalit unity that resounded with slogans like, ‘‘Hathi nahin Ganesh hai, Bramha Vishnu Mahesh hai.’’

The tactic paid rich dividends and BSP was swept into power. The party’s Brahmin mascot and party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra was said to be the second-most important person in the state after Mayawati. This triggered very high hopes among Brahmins. It’s now said that these hopes haven’t quite been fulfilled and hence the caste’s disenchantment with Mayawati.

Mayawati’s gameplan remains the same in this election. She has held a number of brotherhood meetings for Brahmins and given a similarly high proportion of party tickets to Brahmins. But two things have happened.