By eradicating her nephew Akash Anand because the get together’s nationwide coordinator and successor, and emphasising she would proceed to deal with get together affairs until she was alive, Bahjuan Samaj Occasion (BSP) president Mayawati on Sunday despatched throughout a robust message to her get together colleagues. However the transfer additionally casts doubt on the get together’s future at a time when it’s struggling to arrest its electoral slide and stay politically related.
The BSP president wished to underline that the organisation and the Bahujan motion it claims to steer are supreme and never even her household is above it. Sources mentioned after the elevating Akash to nationwide coordinator in 2019 and appointing her brother Anand Kumar, Akash’s father, because the BSP vice-president, Mayawati confronted allegations of nepotism. The criticism got here from each throughout the get together and rival events. What could have in the end compelled her hand, get together insiders mentioned, was {that a} part of the get together’s previous guard was not snug with Akash’s growing position within the get together.
The BSP chief on Sunday appointed Anand Kumar and reinstated Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam as nationwide coordinator, a publish that he held until 2022. Whereas Anand Kumar will largely camp in Delhi, take care of paperwork, and meet employees, Gautam will journey throughout India and will likely be in control of implementing Mayawati’s directives, based on BSP insiders.
One other determination that Mayawati has taken is the appointment of central coordinator Rajaram because the South in-charge and the chief in control of Maharashtra. Ashok Siddharth, whom Mayawati held answerable for Akash’s demotion, earlier had this duty.
The place does Akash Anand go from right here?
The way forward for Mayawati’s one-time inheritor is unsure after the second sacking in as a few years. Nevertheless, a celebration chief expressed hope that he would bounce again. “Akash is younger. We’re hopeful that he’ll bounce again and can get the necessary place within the get together as a result of we’d like a younger chief to draw the youth.”
The get together has been on a gradual decline for years now, with its voting share eroding slowly. The get together did not open its account within the Lok Sabha polls final 12 months regardless of contesting from 488 seats throughout India, together with 79 in UP, in a repeat of its 2014 present. The get together’s vote share dipped to 2.04% nationally and 9.39% in UP. The BSP had gained 10 seats in UP within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the SP and RLD. In UP, the place the get together relies, the BSP gained just one Meeting seat within the 2022 state polls. In addition to, its vote share dipped to 12.88% from 22.23% in 2017, when it gained 19 seats.
Although Akash was drafted in after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he did not convey the get together again on monitor. Within the current Delhi Meeting elections, during which Akash was in cost, the get together did not have any influence and its vote share too declined. The get together additionally did not make a lot headway in states resembling Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana the place he supervised the get together’s efforts.
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He was sacked by Mayawati final 12 months throughout the Lok Sabha polls. This got here days after the police booked him for a ballot rally speech during which he focused the BJP. He was subsequently introduced again after the elections. In January, he obtained one other promotion as he was relieved of state-specific obligations and given organisational and campaign-related duties as a “nationwide chief” of the get together.
What subsequent for the BSP?
The massive query is how the get together will strategise to get the Dalit youth on its facet, a large part of whom, left disenchanted by the get together, gravitated in direction of leaders resembling Chandrashekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Occasion (Kanshi Ram).
With Akash lower to dimension, will Mayawati herself tackle a extra lively position throughout the get together? That’s the huge query on the minds of everybody within the get together. Mayawati had authorised Akash giving interviews within the media earlier than the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and organising a yatra in Rajasthan (earlier than the 2023 Meeting polls) and marches in Madhya Pradesh (2023) and Delhi (2024). With the previous Uttar Pradesh CM again prominently, will she hit the streets, deal with rallies and public conferences? She could have to if she has to enthuse the cadre and provides them course within the electoral battles forward. Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls in 2027.
What occurs to Kanshiram’s legacy?
Within the statements she issued whereas taking motion in opposition to Akash and earlier expelling Ashok Siddharth, Mayawati invoked the legacy of get together founder and her mentor Kanshiram, who too had taken motion in opposition to his sister and niece throughout an election in Punjab.
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Mayawati has tried to ship the message to Dalits that she was the true heir of Kanshiram’s legacy and defending that meant taking motion in opposition to even these from her household. Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad who’s massively in style among the many Dalit youth is one other chief who has positioned himself as a successor to Kanshiram’s political legacy, regularly invoking the BSP founder and utilizing his pictures and quotes. The Samajwadi Occasion that has been attempting to develop its vote base and shed its picture of a “Muslim-Yadav” get together has additionally been attempting to get Dalit votes, paying tribute to Kanshiram on his delivery and loss of life anniversaries. Within the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the get together benefitted rather a lot from a large chunk of Dalit votes shifting in direction of it and emerged because the single-largest get together in UP with 37 seats.
