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Journalism of Courage
In politics, nepotism and dynasties are nothing new. From the Congress, where the fifth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family is now at the forefront, to the BJP, where several of its functionaries in states are third-generation leaders, to regional outfits such as the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the DMK, families matter in Indian politics.
Though not yet on the list, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) seems to be inching towards becoming a dynasty party. Kanshi Ram founded the BSP in 1984 — he kickstarted the Bahujan movement in 1982 with a book titled “Chamcha Yug (The Era of Stooges)” — and the party would go on to have a massive impact on the politics of north India. But Kanshi Ram kept his family away from politics and backed Mayawati, a schoolteacher he had met in Delhi during his days of struggle. On December 15, 2001, he named her his successor at a rally in Lucknow. Over two decades later, Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand, who is the party’s national coordinator at present, is being projected as her likely successor.
On Wednesday, Anand was present with Mayawati at a party meeting in Lucknow and this photo was published on her account on X (formerly Twitter). Anand is also leading the BSP’s charge in poll-bound states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
But, if Akash indeed succeeds Mayawati, it will mark the reversal of the position she had taken 15 years ago in her autobiography. In the third volume of the autobiography, Mere Sangharshmay Jeewan Ka Safarnama (The Story of My Life And Struggles), released on January 15, 2008, her birthday, the BSP chief wrote, “Whenever I will declare my successor, he will not be from among my siblings or relatives. My successor will be from the most oppressed Scheduled Caste, from my caste. He will be 30-35 younger than me so that he can take forward this movement under his leadership for a long time.”
Over the past few decades, several leaders who came up the ranks of the BSP had to either leave the party or got sacked when they locked horns with Mayawati. From Raj Bahadur and Barkhuram Verma to Swami Prasad Maurya and Babu Singh Kushwaha, this is a long list. Several such leaders who left the party because of Mayawati were close to Kanshi Ram and loyal supporters of his ideology.
With the party on an electoral decline — the BSP was reduced to just one seat in the UP Assembly in the elections last year and won 10 seats, but in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections — and new players such as the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) of Chandrashekhar Azad trying to consolidate their position in the Dalit politics in UP, all eyes are on who Mayawati will name as her successor.
To date, the party has reached power only in alliance with other parties — BJP, SP, and some others — and won on its own only in 2007, when the party of the Bahujan raised the slogan of “sarvajan hitay (welfare of all)”.
