Bhim Army shadow on BSP’s renewed focus on the youth ahead of 2024

Sources in the party said youths will be given priority during ticket distribution in the upcoming urban local body elections, as well as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The party’s decision to increase participation of youths came at a time when Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad has become politically active in UP, and is growing in proximity with the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary. A few days earlier, Chandrashekhar had met Akhilesh in Lucknow.

Azad had recently campaigned for SP and RLD candidates in Rampur and Khatauli for Assembly bypolls. In a Rampur rally, SP had offered a chair to Chandrashekhar adjacent to Akhilesh on the stage, closer than even senior party leader Azam Khan.

While SP lost Rampur, RLD won Khatauli. The alarming signal for the BSP was that when it stayed away from the bypolls, Dalits supported RLD in Khatauli and SP in Mainpuri, instead of supporting the ruling-BJP.

Chandrashekhar is moving across UP to mobilise youths and he largely focuses on Dalits and Muslims.

In an interview with The Indian Express on December 10, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary had claimed the Azad Samaj Party will be a part of the SP-RLD alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and 2027 state polls in UP.

The SP and the RLD had an alliance with the BSP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Mayawati’s heir apparent in the BSP, Akash Anand (31), is currently touring different states outside UP with a focus on youths. He is also holding party organisational meetings of the state and mandal units. Instead of speaking only about Dalits and Muslims as usual, the BSP is now also speaking out on issues concerning OBCs, and referring to a “sarv samaj (universal society)”. On his Twitter handle, Akash has described himself a “young supporter” of Babasaheb’s (Bhimrao Ambedkar) vision.

Over the past two years, Mayawati is increasingly seen as grooming Akash Anand for politics. Seeing her trust in Akash — already a young but key party functionary as the BSP national coordinator — party insiders are talking about him as Mayawati’s possible successor in the BSP. After the party’s rout in the 2022 UP polls, Mayawati has told party cadre that she will send Akash to parts of UP to collect “truthful progress report of the party works” and encourage the youth workers.

BSP spokesperson Dharamveer Chaudhary said the party will promote the participation of young and committed leaders in the organisational units, across booths and state units. He said the party has also asked to ensure participation to youths in upcoming local body elections and is considering giving tickets to youths in the next Lok Sabha polls too, highlighting the success of party MP Ritesh Pandey, who had won from Ambedkarnagar in 2019 at the age of 38.

Chaudhary also said Akash advocates for taking the youths along, which is also why youths were in focus in the party’s recent membership drive.

Ahead of 2022 UP Assembly elections, the party had launched “BSP Yuva Samvad” meetings, in an attempt to set up a dialogue to directly reach out to the youths. Kapil Misra, son of party national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra, had addressed a number of such meetings and spoke about the achievements of past Mayawati-led governments. That was the first time when the party had launched an outreach programme exclusively for youths.

Chaudhary said the party still has focus on youths, with Kapil Misra still working among them. He added that the party holds the view that the organisation should be a mix of experienced leaders and youth leaders, who can run and expand the organisation.