Satish Chandra Mishra

Lucknow, May 12: The first thing that strikes you about Satish Chandra Mishra is that he listens more than he talks.

But talk he can — when the need arises — and persuasively.

After all, he is the man responsible for breaking down the resistance of Brahmins to a Dalit leader and helping her party cross the majority mark of 202 on its own.

Today, as Bahujan Samaj Party boss Mayavati prepares for her fourth stint as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, the 53-year-old Brahmin, who started as an advocate in Allahabad High Court, is set to be her second-in-command.

Mishra’s first interaction with Mayavati was in 1997 when he represented her successfully in a case relating to irregularities in the purchase of pumping machines for the state’s fire department.

The tall, strongly built lawyer, whose father T.S. Mishra had been a judge in the high court, impressed Mayavati, then in her second stint as chief minister, by the way he handled the case.

In 2002, when Mayavati became chief minister for the third time, she made him the advocate-general.

“When she came to offer me the post of advocate-general, I told her she didn’t know me and that I was a Brahmin. She was surprised and said it was a misconception that she was against Brahmins or high castes,” Mishra recalls.

A year later, when the BSP split, Mishra was again instrumental in taking the case to the high court and, later, to the Supreme Court and get justice for Mayavati.

As the bond deepened between the Dalit leader and the legal expert, Mishra sold Mayavati the idea of uniting Brahmins and Dalits. He told her the collective force of the Brahmins, who account for 13.8 per cent of the state’s voters, could tilt the balance for the party.

Mayavati agreed, and so began the social engineering that would catapult her to power for the fourth time.

Mishra says he faced “initial resistance” from his fellow caste members who were mostly Congress or BJP supporters. But he won them over. “After that, it became very smooth.”

Now, tipped to be the most important cabinet member after the chief minister, Mishra’s challenge is to take along with him the state’s powerful Brahmin-dominated bureaucracy.

Sources say that won’t be difficult for a man with such persuasive skills.