From lowest caste to high office in India

Her name is Mayawati, and she has a penchant for diamonds, helicopters and power, all of which are at her disposal as the leader of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and home to the Taj Mahal. Elected chief minister in May, she reigns over a population more than half that of the United States.

But Mayawati, who goes by one name, has her eye on an even bigger prize: becoming prime minister of India, an ambition that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Mayawati is a Dalit, a member of the community formerly known as "untouchables," the lowest of the low.

Her rise has shaken up Indian politics as the country gears up for national elections due by May 2009.

She won her present post by stitching together an unlikely coalition of supporters from opposite, and traditionally hostile, ends of the social spectrum: the Dalits and the Brahmins, the cream of India's ancient caste system.

That it was Mayawati who united elements of the two sides seems even more improbable. She first rose to power as a demagogic advocate of caste-based politics, famously urging her fellow Dalits, who make up more than a fifth of Uttar Pradesh's population, to beat higher-caste people with their shoes.

The strength of the Dalit vote was enough to propel her into the chief minister's seat on three previous occasions, but always at the head of unstable coalition governments with other parties. Only one lasted longer than six months.

This time, her Bahujan Samaj (Majority Society) Party, or BSP, owns an outright majority in the state assembly. About three dozen of the BSP's 206 state legislators are Brahmins, the people she once denounced as her enemies.

Mayawati is trying to export her winning formula, promoting the party in other state races and then in national elections. Most analysts do not consider the BSP in a position to win a general election, but it could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, which would give Mayawati enormous influence and the scope to continue building her profile.

"Her party is a national party now. Mayawati is a recognizable figure in national politics," said Ajay Mehra, director of a public-affairs think tank near New Delhi. "Her becoming prime minister certainly is within the realm of possibility. She's trying to build herself toward that.