Lucknow, Aug. 28: Mayavati has declared that only a leader from the Chamar (cobbler) caste would succeed her as the boss of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has been trying to court upper castes to build a social combination, which she feels, would take her closer to the dream of an “absolute majority” in the elections early next year.

She has been organising a series of “Brahmin rallies” with the avowed aim of forging a Dalit-Brahmin axis, but faced discontent among the weaker sections that have traditionally been her political mainstay.

“It is a movement for self-respect. The movement began with the uprising of the Chamars under the leadership of Kanshi Ram. I will keep my family out of the frontline leadership. When I retire, only a Chamar leader will inherit the leadership. He or she could be any of you from this caste,” Mayavati said after being elected party president for the second time here yesterday.

None of the 970 delegates from 20 states across the country who had gathered here for the occasion proposed a second name.

She first became the BSP boss in 2003, when former party chief and her mentor Kanshi Ram fell ill.

Mayavati’s efforts to garner upper-caste support had been causing rumblings within the party’s primary support base, which comprises Chamars and other weaker sections.

In many Dalit villages, there was a feeling that the community was merely being used as a pawn.

The fears grew in recent months when she projected Satish Chandra Mishra, an advocate, as the “most powerful face of the upper castes” to court Brahmins — much like the Samajwadi Party wooing the Thakurs. Brahmins make up 9 per cent of Uttar Pradesh voters.

Mayavati’s Brahmin serenade left her open to attacks from rival Dalit parties headed by Ram Vilas Paswan and Udit Raj. She then assured party workers she was not diluting the “basic principle”.

Dalits constitute 22 per cent of Hindus in Uttar Pradesh, and Chamars make up 57 per cent. Forty-six per cent of Chamars — landless labourers and cultivators — in India are in the state.