Mayawati’s inner circle: Amid BSP succession row, who are the aides advising her?

The family tussle within the BSP has deepened the crisis gripping the party which has been struggling to regain its ground in Uttar Pradesh slated for the Assembly elections in February 2027. In the 2022 elections, the BSP could win just one seat of UP’s 403 seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party drew a blank in the state.

Over the last one year, Mayawati has made repeated changes in the organisational roles of her family members as well as senior leaders in a bid to maintain her authority in the party as its sole power centre. There has however been a core team of the BSP leaders who have been working closely with her for years, with Mayawati regularly consulting them on various political and organisational issues to run the party.

BSP vice-president Anand Kumar with general secretary SC Misra

Anand Kumar

Mayawati’s younger brother, Anand Kumar, who is the father of Akash and Ishan, is mandated to attend all national meetings of the BSP in Lucknow and Delhi. Earlier this month, Mayawati assigned him an additional task of convening regular meetings of the party’s two sectors comprising all the states, barring UP and Uttarakhand, and visit these states to give her the party’s progress reports. She has kept the charge of UP and Uttarakhand with herself.

The BSP chief expanded Kumar’s role after scrapping the post of the chief sector coordinator held briefly by Ishan. She recently said she was firmly against “nepotism” but because she is a woman, she was forced to keep her brother Kumar with her to ensure her safety so that she could continue steering the party smoothly.

Mayawati first appointed Kumar, 59, as the BSP vice-president after the 2017 UP polls, when the party faced a loss for second consecutive time. In 2018, she announced Kumar’s resignation to counter allegations of nepotism, only to reappoint him within a few months.

The BSP supremo trusts Kumar and frequently seeks his opinion on organisational affairs, party sources said.

Satish Chandra Misra

The BSP national general secretary since 2003, Satish Chandra Misra, 73, is a senior lawyer and three-term Rajya Sabha member. He was the UP Advocate General from May 2002 to August 2003 during the then Mayawati regime. He is also the ex-president of the UP Bar Council.

Last month, Mayawati entrusted Misra with the charge of legal and media matters beside the responsibility of the Election Commission-related affairs in view of the upcoming UP polls.

“Behan ji (Mayawati) always consults Misra ji on legal issues, especially when she has to give her political opinion in the media on any government proposal or Bill or any constitutional matter,” said a BSP functionary.

Misra has also been given the responsibility of developing “bhaichara (brotherhood)” between Dalits and Brahmins in line with the party’s social engineering formula. In the run-up to the 2022 elections, Misra had addressed the party’s “prabudha varg vichar-gosthis”, special meetings involving Brahmins, across the state.

BSP general secretary Mewalal Gautam with UP party state president Vsihwanath Pal

Mewalal Gautam

Another BSP national general secretary Mewalal Gautam, who hails from Fatehpur, communicates Mayawati’s decisions to the party rank and file. He also coordinates organisational programmes as well as Mayawati’s meetings with party leaders.

Last year, Mayawati assigned him the responsibility to hold monthly meetings of “Pichhda Varg Bhaichara Committees”, which were formed to reach out to the OBC voters. He was Mayawati’s OSD (officer on special duty) when she was the chief minister from 2007 to 2012. At the BSP headquarters in Lucknow, Gautam takes phone calls of party leaders and convey their messages to her.

Mayawati had assigned Mewalal the task of monitoring the party’s campaign in all 84 Scheduled Caste (SC)-reserved seats of UP during the 2022 elections. The BSP had however failed to win any of these seats.

Arvind Kumar Gautam

Working from the BSP office in Delhi, party national general secretary Arvind Kumar Gautam plays a significant role in organising the meetings of senior party leaders in the national capital. He is also mandated to make necessary arrangements when the party organises the workers’ events at Bahujan Prerna Kendra in Delhi and Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida to pay tributes to B R Ambedkar and party founder Kanshi Ram.

When Akash Anand had been a key BSP face, Arvind also used to coordinate his tours for rallies and workers’ meetings.

Sridhar

BSP treasurer Sridhar, who is from Tamil Nadu, is one of Mayawati’s trusted lieutenants. Because of his proficiency in multiple languages besides Hindi and English, he has been involved in monitoring of party affairs in the southern states, sources said.

During the elections, Sridhar has had the responsibility of getting published information about candidates with pending criminal cases in the media or social media.

Rajya Sabha member Ramji Gautam

Ramji Gautam

Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam, 50, is currently the BSP’s only member in Parliament. His term is expiring in November this year. “Since Ramji

is in Parliament, Behan ji guides him regarding parliamentary matters and issues to be raised in the House,” said party insiders, adding that he is one of the party’s key “strategists” with a “sound understanding” of its functioning.

Hailing from Lakhimpur Kheri, Ramji, an MBA who studied chemical engineering, also runs a business. He first came to the limelight in 2018 when Mayawati named him as the BSP national vice-president. In June 2019, she made him the party’s national coordinator as Anand Kumar replaced him as the vice-president. He has served as the party in-charge of several states including Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

In 2022, Mayawati named Ramji as the BSP’s central coordinator.

Vishwanath Pal

Months after losing the 2022 UP polls, Mayawati in December that year appointed an MBC (Most Backward Class) leader Vishwanath Pal as the new state party chief. “His reputation in the BSP is of a missionary – a diligent and faithful worker. As he is the UP party chief, Behan ji regularly speaks to him to review the party’s preparations for the 2027 Assembly elections and about its organisational teams,” sources said.

Pal has also been handling the party’s outreach to the OBCs while being engaged in supervising the work of its Pichhda Varg Bhaichara Committees along with Mevalal Gautam.

BSP national secretary Naushad Ali

Naushad Ali

A former member of the UP Legislative Council, Naushad Ali is the lone Muslim face among the BSP’s national office bearers. A party national secretary hailing from Kannauj district, Naushad has been among those leaders with whom Mayawati interacts to seeks suggestions on the minority issues.

In February this year, he was allotted the charge of Lucknow, Kanpur, and Agra mandals to consolidate Muslim votes for the party ahead of the 2027 polls.