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Journalism of Courage
FROM ENTRUSTING her nephew Akash Anand with national-level responsibilities to launching a cadre-building exercise in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati took key organisational decisions at a meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday, sources in the party said.
BSP leaders who lead state-level operations will now report to Mayawati and Akash both, said a party leader who attended Wednesday’s meeting.
While Akash was reappoinyed the national coordinator of the party in June 2024, setting the stage for him to be Mayawati’s successor, Akash has so far only been in-charge of Assembly election operations in Haryana and now Delhi.
The move to give him larger responsibilities involving organisational and campaign-related programmes across the country clears any doubts about his role in the party, BSP sources said.
“Akash ji is the lone successor of Behanji (Mayawati), but his state specific responsibilities create confusion among the voters and cadre about his position in the party. Also, the party’s poor show in the Assembly polls (that Akash managed) sent an adverse message among the BSP’s base voters about the next generation leadership of the party,” said a BSP leader.
The decision assumes significance ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, and sets the stage for Akash to take up a leadership role. So far, Mayawati has been solely monitoring the organisational works in the state.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Mayawati reportedly directed the BSP district units in Uttar Pradesh to intensify activities with its cadre camps. The organisation has also been divided into sector camps, each covering 10 polling booths.
“So far, we would only organise a cadre camp at the Assembly constituency level. But now, more than four such camps will be organised in every Assembly segment. In cadre camps, nearly 400 people only from SC, ST, OBC and minority sections (not the upper caste) will be invited,” said a BSP leader.
Alongside this, the BSP has decided to appoint district in-charges in proportion to the number of Assembly constituencies in the district. The party will now hold organisational activities between October to March and review the work between April and September.
In September 2017, a few months after the BJP came to power in UP in a massive victory, reducing the BSP to 19 seats, Mayawati had formally introduced Akash to party workers.
By the time of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Akash was playing an active role in the party and was credited with getting Mayawati to join social media platform X.
When the Election Commission banned Mayawati from campaigning for 48 hours during the polls, Akash addressed his very first rally, urging people to vote for the BSP.
A few weeks after the 2019 results, in which the BSP won the most seats (10) after the BJP in UP, Mayawati appointed Akash the party’s national coordinator, with the responsibility of bringing the youth, especially those from the Dalit community, into the BSP fold.
In December 2022, after the debacle of the UP Assembly polls, in which the BSP won just one seat, Mayawati told the cadre that she would send Akash to different parts of the state to collect “truthful progress reports of work done by the party”.
Akash’s role was then expanded to overseeing the BSP’s preparations for the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections in 2023. He was told to help formulate a campaign around issues concerning Dalits, religious minorities, OBCs, and tribals.
In May 2024, Mayawati announced she was removing Akash as her political heir and the party national coordinator “until he attains maturity”.
She reinstated him a month later as her “lone successor” and the party’s national coordinator.
