BSP churn likely to create vacuum in Uttar Pradesh's Dalit politics

Analysts predict bleak future unless the party reinvents itself and sheds its perceived BJP ties. Radhika Ramaseshan writes

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may not have made a mark in the recent general and Uttar Pradesh elections, but unlike other beaten and disorganised outfits, it is undergoing a massive churn for rather bizarre reasons.

 

“The limitations of caste mobilisation are writ large over the BSP. When the Bahujans (the less empowered and disempowered castes) have power, they have fusion. Without power, there is fission,” said Vivek Kumar, sociologist and professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and the author of Dalit Leadership in India, among other works.

 

In the BSP, the post-defeat bursts of energy are manifest not in political or ideological ways but in an entirely personal manner, in keeping with its president Mayawati’s penchant for putting herself above the party, which was founded and nurtured by her mentor, the late Kanshi Ram.

 

The most recent trigger for internal unrest was Mayawati’s nephew, Akash Anand. Akash is the son of Anand Kumar, Mayawati’s brother. An MBA graduate from London, he is better known for his flamboyant sartorial taste and a collection of shoes to match his shirts than for his political beliefs, if he holds any. Akash was appointed as the BSP’s national coordinator after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which the party won 10 seats in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

 

Mayawati’s idea was to project a young leader to counter the rising influence of Chandra Shekhar Azad, Nagina MP and the national president of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), in western Uttar Pradesh, once her political stronghold. She also declared Akash as her “political successor,” much to the reported consternation of old-timers who were Kanshi Ram’s associates. They believed it was a form of dynastic politics, which Kanshi Ram had rejected when his own family members attempted to break into the BSP.

 

In May 2024, Mayawati, known for her whimsical working style, announced that Akash was removed as the national coordinator and heir apparent “in the larger interest of the party and the (Bahujan) movement.”

 

But BSP insiders maintained that the “real” reason for Akash’s removal was the aggressive speeches he delivered against the BJP in the 2022 UP polls. “The BSP is a B-team of the BJP, a vote-cutter of the Opposition votes. That message went down the line to the cadre when she divested Akash of his mandate,” said S R Darapuri, a Kanshi Ram associate who now has his own party, the All India People’s Front. After the elections, Mayawati reinstated Akash in his previous post. However, a development surrounding his marriage to Pragya, the daughter of former BSP MP Ashok Siddharth, signalled that trouble was brewing again.

 

Siddharth, once a close aide of Mayawati, was expelled from the BSP early this year. “He was a dedicated worker. The wedding wouldn’t have happened without her approval,” said Vivek Kumar.

 

In February this year, Akash was removed as the national coordinator and expelled from the party. Mayawati also announced that the BSP would not have a successor as long as she was alive. Akash’s father, Anand, remained in the party.

 

“Mayawati was looking for a way to show she’s the boss and establish her legitimacy,” said Vivek Kumar. A BSP source said Mayawati’s fear was Akash, in tandem with his father-in-law Siddharth, was creating a parallel power centre by appointing state coordinators of their choice to challenge his aunt. She also blamed Akash for the BSP’s serial electoral defeats in Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

 

What does the future hold for the BSP? According to Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit writer and affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University, “The BSP is a matter of the past now. Family quarrels are not symptoms of a rising force but of a party in decline. Also, the BSP’s main strengths — using symbolism and embracing identity politics — have outlived their purpose. Building monuments, etc., are not Dalit demands. Young Dalits want education, scholarships, jobs, and business opportunities. Think of Black politics in the US. It had a life of 20 or 30 years derived from militancy. The Blacks gradually realised that their future lay in integrating with a market economy.”

 

Prasad believes Dalits would opt for mainstream politics. “They voted for the Congress too in UP (in the last general elections), but the Congress must appear strong enough to defeat the BJP.”

 

For Darapuri, the BSP’s only salvation lies in aligning with an Opposition coalition. “Mayawati can’t go against the BJP. But Dalits were very upset when she broke away from the Opposition.”

 

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Dalits voted according to their sub-castes rather than as a monolithic bloc. While the Chamars or Jatavs — to which both Mayawati and Azad belong — divided their votes between the BSP and the Azad Samaj Party (in western UP), the Passis, the second-largest sub-caste, backed the SP. The more “Hinduised” sub-castes, such as the Khatiks and Valmikis, remained with the BJP.

 

A source in Azad’s party claimed that this pattern is not set in stone. “We are working to bring smaller sub-castes into our fold by organising education and training camps for them outside western UP. We should eventually get some of their votes.”

 

As for the BSP, unless Mayawati returns to the drawing board and shakes off the perception of being a BJP underling, the future looks bleak for both her and her party.     

THE RISE, PEAK, AND FALL 

From a marginal player in 1989, Mayawati-led BSP secured a majority in 2007 to form the Uttar Pradesh government. Its success continued in the 2009 LokSabha polls, winning a record 21 seats. However, the party’s influence has since faded, with a shrinking voter base raising questions about its political relevance.