Handing over the baton

One of the first decisions that Mayawati took at the party’s first review meeting after the Lok Sabha drubbing was to reinstate nephew Akash Anand as her “lone political successor” and the party’s national coordinator, while urging partymen to “give him (Akash) more respect than earlier”.

Anand was appointed the BSP national coordinator for the first time in 2019 and then named Mayawati’s political heir in December last year. However, in May this year, in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati had removed him after an outburst by him referring to the Yogi Adityanath government as “aatankvaadiyon ki sarkar (government of terrorists)”. Anand’s remarks followed UP Police action against him over an alleged hate speech at a party rally in Sitapur. After he was removed from the party posts, Anand had stopped his Lok Sabha campaign mid-way.

At the review meeting where he was brought back, several BSP candidates pointed out that action against Anand had adversely affected their campaigns. They said the move had not gone down well with the Dalit community either, which felt the BSP had kowtowed to the BJP.

Redistributing responsibilities

At the meeting of the BSP Central Executive Committee and of its national office-bearers in Lucknow Tuesday, Mayawati shuffled the incharges of the states bound for elections.

Anand was assigned Haryana and Delhi, which will see elections on October 1 and next year respectively. Anand has already got down to work in Haryana, where the BSP has forged an alliance with the Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and held a joint BSP-INLD workers’ meeting. He is scheduled to travel to various constituencies to oversee the party’s poll preparations, and hold 10 rallies in the run-up to the Assembly polls. Mayawati is also likely to visit the state, sources said.

The responsibility of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has been handed over by Mayawati to Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam, replacing senior party leader Ashok Siddharth, who has been tasked with handling the party affairs in Maharashtra, where elections are due later this year.

Former BSP vice-president Raja Ram has been deputed to Jammu and Kashmir and has been tasked with building the party’s organisation and campaign ahead of the three-phased Assembly polls in the Union territory, starting September 18.

Opening its door to allies

While staying equidistant from the NDA and the Opposition INDIA bloc, the BSP has decided to open channels of communication with other parties outside UP.

“Behenji has asked us to look for alliance partners but only with those regional parties which are not a part of the NDA and INDIA bloc. The BSP can reach out to smaller state-based parties and develop a social coalition of Dalits and other communities,” the leader quoted above said.

Operational changes

In contrast to its earlier stance of not holding protests on public issues, the BSP not only extended support to the August 21 Bharat Bandh on the Supreme Court order on sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, but also participated in it.

“On August 18, we suggested to Behenji that participation in demonstrations will send out a good message to the Dalit community. She agreed and the move seems to have worked, as people who had drifted away from the party have shown intent to return. We are planning to hold similar agitations on other issues concerning Dalits and OBCs in the future,” the leader said.

Cutting entry costs

After the Lok Sabha loss, the BSP reduced its membership fees from Rs 200 to Rs 50. Sources said the party hopes to boost its numbers in the hope of regaining its electoral base ahead of Assembly polls in various states. “By reducing the fees, the party can attract more people from economically weaker sections of society as well as rural areas. We are also focussing on inducting youth and giving them organisational responsibilities,” a party insider said.