Sky delights
Given the BSP’s dwindling political support base and continued electoral defeats, party chief Mayawati expects a ‘miracle’ from her nephew Akash Anand. In the midst of the Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati removed Akash Anand as the national coordinator and his successor. In order to repeat the 2007-like results in the assembly elections to be held in 2027, the BSP chief has reversed his decision and again announced Akash Anand as his political successor and made him the national coordinator. Mayawati may have made Akash more powerful than before, but has she given him a crown full of thorns?
With Akash Anand regaining his post, he has become the number two in his party after Mayawati. When Mayawati sacked him last month in the midst of the Lok Sabha elections, BSP leaders were hopeful that Anand would be reinstated, but did not expect a decision so soon. Some in the party speculated that Mayawati’s U-turn was the reason for her defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. However, it is not at all true that even after regaining the post, his way forward will be easy. In the last 12 years, since the BSP has been out of power in UP, all its big leaders have disbanded and gone away.
There are many such major challenges, including the BSP’s fragmented vote bank and frustrated organization. In such a situation, it remains to be seen what steps Akash Anand will take to rally the scattered clans of the BSP and counter Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad’s strategy, which could establish him in UP politics. If they are unable to do this, the legacy of the Bahujan movement, built after four decades of hard work, will soon crumble.
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At the same time, another big thing is that the Dalits and Backward Classes, who were the BSP’s core votebank, have been alienated to a large extent. Many of them have strongly joined the BJP while many have gone with Akhilesh’s SP. What does Akash Anand’s comeback mean for the BSP after its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, especially when bypolls are around the corner and assembly elections are due in four states of the country this year? Apart from this, Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are to be held in 2027. Is it a big political challenge for Akash Anand to bring back the party in such circumstances?
Mayawati’s sudden change of heart
BSP chief Mayawati removed Akash Anand from his post on May 7, causing him to halt his campaign midway through the Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati was single-handedly campaigning for the party. The feedback from the BSP candidates who lost the 2024 elections was that Jatav Dalits as well as a section of Muslims, considered to be the BSP’s core voters, would not have supported the SP-Congress alliance if Akash Anand had continued his campaign. .
Mayawati mainly targeted the SP and Congress, while Akash Anand consistently targeted the BJP on issues of education, poverty, economy and law and order. According to BSP leaders, the removal of Akash sent a message to Dalits and Muslims that Mayawati had come under pressure from the BJP. Due to which Mayawati has reinstated him after the results of the Lok Sabha elections.
Challenge to stop BSP’s sliding votebank
BSP’s votes are decreasing after the election. The BSP’s vote share in UP was 19.3 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which declined to 13 percent in the 2022 assembly elections and reached 9.3 percent in the 2024 elections. Apart from this, the political base of BSP is also surrounded in different states of the country. BSP now has not a single Lok Sabha MP and not a single MLA in the Assembly. BSP has reached the status of 1989.
In such a situation Akash Anand faces the challenge of stopping the sliding support of the BSP, as the non-Jatav Dalits have already left the party and this time the Jatav votes have also declined significantly. Apart from this, the extremely backward class community which Kanshi Ram worked to connect with the party has also slipped away from the party. Anand also has to bring back this votebank and try to win back the trust of the Pasi community among Dalits.
Akash’s first test will be in the by-elections
Akash Anand’s first test after making a strong comeback in the BSP will be in the by-elections. There are by-elections on 10 assembly seats in UP, while five seats each in Bihar and Rajasthan. Bypolls are due in Uttarakhand and Punjab, for which Mayawati has roped in Akash Anand as her star campaigner. Till now BSP kept a distance from the by-elections, but now it has decided to try its luck in the election battle. Akash Anand will again take charge of the by-election campaign. In such a situation, if the BSP manages to win some seats in the by-elections, it can be a new ray of hope for the party.
Sky delights
Examination in the assembly elections to be held in 2024
Another test for Akash Anand is the assembly elections to be held in four states of the country this year. Assembly elections are held in Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. The BSP has a political base in these four states and the Dalit community is also present in large numbers. If Akash Anand succeeds in giving political life to the BSP in these four states, the party may get a new direction. Akash Anand was already working in Delhi and Haryana and now after becoming powerful again he will enter these two states with full force. In such a situation, it remains to be seen what results the BSP gets in these states.
How to confront Chandrasekhar Azad?
Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) leader Chandrashekhar has become MP from Azad Nagina Lok Sabha seat. BSP had won this seat in 2019, but Girish Chandra Jatav, who had won the last election, was fielded this time from Bulandshahr seat instead of Nagina. Thus, with the loss of Nagina seat, BSP could not win a single Lok Sabha seat. Chandrasekhar Azad will now try to establish himself as a Dalit leader.
However, Muslims played a bigger role than Dalits in the victory of Chandrasekhar Azad. Chandrasekhar got 80 percent of the Muslim votes in Nagina. Not only has Mayawati decided to re-promote Akash Anand to counter Chandrasekhar’s politics, it has also made him more powerful than before. Akash Anand has a huge popularity among the downtrodden youth, which he will now work to fully integrate with the party. Youth have been successful in connecting Dalits with BSP.
How to break BJP’s B-team narrative
The slogan of BJP’s B-Team has been plastered on BSP. Once upon a time Muslims were also the core vote bank of BSP, but now seeing BSP as weak against BJP, they have formed an alliance with SP. It is a relief for the BSP that the Jatav community voters are still with Mayawati, but any election depending on them is not only difficult, but impossible. BSP now has no Lok Sabha MP and this will further weaken BSP. A return of joy was necessary to mitigate this loss.
A BSP leader said Akash Anand’s reappointment would help remove the stigma of being a BJP B-team. This will help rebuild confidence in our core voter base of Jatavs and other Dalits and re-energise our cadres who were dejected after the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. BSP strategists believe that if Anand had continued his campaign in the election campaign, Dalits, the BSP’s main vote bank, would not have supported the SP-Congress alliance.
Unlike Mayawati’s campaign style, where she mainly targeted SP and Congress, Akash consistently targeted BJP on issues of education, poverty, economy and law and order. Leaders said her departure sent a message to Dalits and Muslims that Mayawati had come under pressure from the BJP. His reappointment in such a situation will help the BSP to shed the tag of being the BJP’s B-team, as it has taken an aggressive stance on the BJP since its inception.
Akash Anand is stronger than ever
As National Coordinator, Akash Anand’s power in the party was limited from 2019. He was sidelined and had no role in ticket distribution for the Lok Sabha elections. Ahead of the assembly elections in 2027, a BSP leader said the party needs a young leader who can travel across the state and hold district-wise meetings and get direct feedback from the ground. That is why Mayawati this time not only made Akash Anand the national coordinator and his successor but also gave him responsibility for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Apart from this, he has also been entrusted with the responsibility of reviewing the organisation, due to which all party coordinators have to report to him. Thus Akash Anand will play an important role in UP after Mayawati.
