Mayawati Reinstates Nephew Akash Anand As Successor

During a review meeting to assess the causes of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s worst ever performance in a general election, party supremo Mayawati decided to reinstate her nephew Akash Anand as the party’s national coordinator and her “lone successor” on June 23.

Anand had been left high and dry after he was stripped of his party post and successor tag on May 7 for ‘ being immature’. This move had come during the peak of the election campaign.

However, reversing her decision, Mayawati issued a statement saying “I am hopeful that he will emerge completely as a ‘mature leader’ at every level in the interest of the party and movement. Party people will also encourage him by giving more respect than earlier so that he lives up to my expectations”.

Known for overturning her decisions for political exigencies, this still breaks her own record of doing it so quickly. On May 7 she had sacked Akash saying her decision would be in force “in the larger interest of the party and movement…until he attains maturity”.

The step was taken when during an election meeting at Sitapur he had been booked for reportedly promoting hatred and enmity for describing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as “‘aatankwadiyon ki sarkar’ (a government of terrorists)”.

What is the reason for this sudden U-turn? Insiders report that during feedback a number of candidates who have lost expressed the view that a sizable section of Muslim and even Jatav supporters switched loyalties to the I.N.D.I.A bloc candidate during the election after Anand was humiliated and removed.

Unlike Mayawati he had been unambiguously attacking the BJP for its failure to address people's issues like poverty, health, law & order, education and so on. His departure had once again reinforced the notion of BSP being the B team of the BJP.

The results now prove that BSP is down and completely out. It did not win a single seat, which it didn’t even in 2014, but then its vote share had remained at 19.77 percent.

In 2024 BSP’s vote share plummeted to 9.39 percent from 19.43 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, when BSP had won 10 seats in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. In the 2022 UP Vidhan Sabha polls when BSP won a solitary seat its vote share was still 12.88 percent.

Worse still, the BSP candidates were not even runner ups in any of the 80 seats it contested in Uttar Pradesh or even the 488 it contested nationwide, the highest among the national parties. Many of its candidates have not been able to save their deposits.

Another reason for her decision to bring back her nephew is that while in the 18th Lok Sabha the BSP will go unrepresented, another young assertive Dalit leader has emerged and would be present in the Lok Sabha to be the voice of the Dalits – 36-year old Chandrashekhar Azad President of the Azad Samaj Party-Kanshi Ram.

He has won the Nagina reserved seat in Bijnor on his own by a huge margin of 1.53 votes relegating the BSP to the fourth position. This seat has a predominant Dalit and Muslim vote.

According to a BSP leader present at the review meeting, “The BSP has no Lok Sabha MP now and Azad will raise the issues of Dalits and Muslims in the House while travelling across the country. This will help him evolve as a Dalit leader and as an alternative to Mayawati, further weakening the BSP. To control this damage, Akash Anand’s return was important. ”

Anand’s reinstatement is a decision guided by the resolve to reclaim the legacy of Kanshi Ram, the Dalit icon and founder of the BSP. Behenji’s beta noir Chandrashekhar Azad had centred his campaign on “fulfilling ‘Kanshi Ram ji ke sapne’ (Kanshi Ram’s dream)” which appears to have been clearly abandoned by the party he had so painstakingly set up and nurtured.