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By removing her nephew Akash Anand as the party’s national coordinator and successor, and emphasising she would continue to handle party affairs till she was alive, Bahjuan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Sunday sent across a strong message to her party colleagues. But the move also casts doubt on the party’s future at a time when it is struggling to arrest its electoral slide and remain politically relevant.
The BSP president wanted to underline that the organisation and the Bahujan movement it claims to lead are supreme and not even her family is above it. Sources said after the elevating Akash to national coordinator in 2019 and appointing her brother Anand Kumar, Akash’s father, as the BSP vice-president, Mayawati faced allegations of nepotism. The criticism came from both within the party and rival parties. What may have ultimately forced her hand, party insiders said, was that a section of the party’s old guard was not comfortable with Akash’s increasing role in the party.
The BSP chief on Sunday appointed Anand Kumar and reinstated Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam as national coordinator, a post that he held till 2022. While Anand Kumar will largely camp in Delhi, look after paperwork, and meet workers, Gautam will travel across India and will be in charge of implementing Mayawati’s directives, according to BSP insiders.
Another decision that Mayawati has taken is the appointment of central coordinator Rajaram as the South in-charge and the leader in charge of Maharashtra. Ashok Siddharth, whom Mayawati held responsible for Akash’s demotion, earlier had this responsibility.
The future of Mayawati’s one-time heir is uncertain after the second sacking in as many years. However, a party leader expressed hope that he would bounce back. “Akash is young. We are hopeful that he will bounce back and will get the important position in the party because we need a young leader to attract the youth.”
The party has been on a steady decline for years now, with its voting percentage eroding slowly. The party failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha polls last year despite contesting from 488 seats across India, including 79 in UP, in a repeat of its 2014 show. The party’s vote share dipped to 2.04% nationally and 9.39% in UP. The BSP had won 10 seats in UP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the SP and RLD. In UP, where the party is based, the BSP won only one Assembly seat in the 2022 state polls. Besides, its vote share dipped to 12.88% from 22.23% in 2017, when it won 19 seats.
Though Akash was drafted in after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he failed to bring the party back on track. In the recent Delhi Assembly elections, in which Akash was in charge, the party failed to have any impact and its vote share too declined. The party also failed to make much headway in states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana where he supervised the party’s efforts.
He was sacked by Mayawati last year during the Lok Sabha polls. This came days after the police booked him for a poll rally speech in which he targeted the BJP. He was subsequently brought back after the elections. In January, he got another promotion as he was relieved of state-specific responsibilities and given organisational and campaign-related duties as a “national leader” of the party.
The big question is how the party will strategise to get the Dalit youth on its side, a sizable section of whom, left disenchanted by the party, gravitated towards leaders such as Chandrashekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).
With Akash cut to size, will Mayawati herself take on a more active role within the party? That is the big question on the minds of everyone in the party. Mayawati had approved Akash giving interviews in the media before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and organising a yatra in Rajasthan (before the 2023 Assembly polls) and marches in Madhya Pradesh (2023) and Delhi (2024). With the former Uttar Pradesh CM back prominently, will she hit the streets, address rallies and public meetings? She may need to if she has to enthuse the cadre and give them direction in the electoral battles ahead. Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls in 2027.
In the statements she issued while taking action against Akash and earlier expelling Ashok Siddharth, Mayawati invoked the legacy of party founder and her mentor Kanshiram, who too had taken action against his sister and niece during an election in Punjab.
Mayawati has attempted to send the message to Dalits that she was the true inheritor of Kanshiram’s legacy and protecting that meant taking action against even those from her family. Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad who is massively popular among the Dalit youth is another leader who has positioned himself as a successor to Kanshiram’s political legacy, frequently invoking the BSP founder and using his photographs and quotes. The Samajwadi Party that has been trying to expand its vote base and shed its image of a “Muslim-Yadav” party has also been trying to get Dalit votes, paying tribute to Kanshiram on his birth and death anniversaries. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party benefitted a lot from a sizable chunk of Dalit votes moving towards it and emerged as the single-largest party in UP with 37 seats.
