When Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam reached the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP) workplace in Lucknow on Sunday for a gathering of the get together’s senior functionaries, he appeared round for a chair within the assembly corridor. That’s when a employees member knowledgeable Gautam that get together chief Mayawati had instructed that the MP be requested to take one of many 5 chairs positioned to the suitable of hers on the dais.
With Mayawati’s nephew and nationwide coordinator Akash Anand absent, Gautam was provided the seat subsequent to get together nationwide common secretary S C Mishra, triggering murmurs within the room a couple of main organisational change. Minutes later, the BSP chief dropped a bombshell that some had seen coming. The previous Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister introduced that Anand had been eliminated as nationwide coordinator and now two leaders would carry out the duties. She named Gautam and get together vice-president Anand Kumar, her brother and Akash’s father, as the brand new nationwide coordinators. On Monday, she expelled Akash from the get together.
That is the second stint of 49-year-old Gautam, a Jatav Dalit from Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, because the BSP nationwide coordinator.
Gautam gravitated in direction of the ideologies of Dr B R Ambedkar and BSP founder Kanshi Ram at a younger age, skipping college as a better secondary scholar in Lakhimpur to journey to Lucknow to attend public rallies of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati on the Begum Hazrat Mahal Park. In his locality, he additionally actively participated in processions marking Ambedkar’s start anniversary.
Gautam joined the BSP in 1990 and inside three years grew to become a booth-level president. He later served because the get together’s sector-level president and Meeting unit common secretary in Lakhimpur.
He then left Lakhimpur to pursue his graduate research in chemical engineering and accomplished an MBA in advertising and marketing and manufacturing. Gautam initially labored as a visitor instructor at a polytechnic institute and later joined the Reliance Group. His work additionally took him to Punjab the place he started working for the BSP in Mansa district. By 2011, he had had sufficient and resigned from a job within the telecom sector to pursue politics full-time.
Gautam received a chance to satisfy Mayawati for the primary time in 2014. Quickly afterwards, he was appointed the get together in-charge for Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand area however inside a 12 months was demoted to in-charge for the Powayan Meeting seat in Shahjahanpur district.
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In 2016, he bounced again once more after he was appointed because the in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Kerala, a task he held for 2 years earlier than being moved to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The identical 12 months, Mayawati eliminated Jai Prakash Singh because the get together’s nationwide vice-president after he mentioned Congress chief Rahul Gandhi might by no means aspire to be the Prime Minister as a result of his “mom’s overseas origin”. Gautam was introduced in as his alternative.
In 2019, Mayawati changed Gautam along with her brother Anand Kumar because the vice-president and appointed him and Akash Anand as nationwide coordinators. In 2022, Gautam was appointed the BSP’s central coordinator, placing him in command of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand.
When the BSP received six seats within the Rajasthan Meeting elections in 2018, Gautam was the get together’s state in-charge. Nonetheless, the get together confronted a setback quickly afterwards as all six moved to the Congress and in 2023, the get together’s tally dropped to 2. In 2020, the BSP additionally bagged one Meeting seat in Bihar, one other state the place Gautam was in cost. In 2020, the get together nominated Gautam to the Rajya Sabha. At current, he’s the get together’s solely parliamentarian.
Rajaram, the opposite chief promoted
Gautam is just not the one new face within the BSP’s high management. On Sunday, Mayawati additionally appointed the get together’s central coordinator and former MP Rajaram, 56, because the chief in command of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra. These states had been earlier the accountability of former MP Ashok Siddharth, Akash’s father-in-law who was expelled from the BSP final month. Mayawati has blamed the affect of Siddharth as the explanation for Akash’s expulsion. Aside from these states, Rajaram additionally handles Gujarat for the get together.
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Hailing from Azamgarh district’s Lalganj city, Rajaram too is from the Jatav group. He joined the BSP when he was 26 years outdated and began working alongside Kanshi Ram and Mayawati in 1993.
After attaining a postgraduate diploma from the Kashi Vidyapeeth in Varanasi, he initially labored because the get together coordinator in Delhi, the place he accompanied Kanshi Ram throughout a door-to-door outreach programme and later travelled with him throughout completely different states.
From 2003 to 2008, Rajaram was an MLC in UP. However earlier than expiry of his time period, the get together, in energy within the state on the time, requested him to resign as MLC and nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in 2009 and once more in 2014.
Rajaram was the BSP vice-president for nearly 10 years earlier than serving because the central coordinator and dealing because the in-charge in virtually each state. Most not too long ago, he was the chief in command of Jammu and Kashmir through the Meeting polls final 12 months.
