Editorial: A deja vu moment for BSP

By declaring that there would be no successor in the party ‘till her last breath’, an irrepressible Mayawati may have crushed hopes of reviving the party

It was a déjà vu moment for the moribund Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) when its supremo Mayawati sacked her nephew Akash Anand, widely seen as her political heir, from all party posts for the second time within a span of ten months. By declaring that there would be no successor in the party ‘till her last breath’, an irrepressible Mayawati may have crushed hopes of reviving the party that has been rapidly losing relevance in the current political dynamics. Reinstated in June last year as the party’s national coordinator within a month of being summarily removed from the post, Akash, a management graduate from the UK with powerful oratory skills and a wide following among the cadre, was seen as a ray of hope for the party that is facing an existential crisis. The sudden move came as a suicidal blow at a time when the party needed an aggressive young Dalit leader to revive its fortunes. The reason cited for his removal — his links with an expelled BSP leader — smacks of authoritarianism. In fact, Mayawati’s style of functioning has traits similar to the ones that she accuses the ‘Manuwadi’ parties of. Four decades after Kanshi Ram founded the BSP to fight for the political empowerment of the Dalit community, she is squandering away his powerful legacy. Despite a promising start with a potential to emerge as a pan-India force, Mayawati’s political journey appears to be going off track with no clarity on goals and strategies.

Not long ago, she was seen as a contender for the Prime Minister’s post. But her fall has been swift and irreversible and coincided with the rise of the BJP in her home State of Uttar Pradesh. A steady spate of desertions from the party comes as no surprise, given the state of limbo that it finds itself in. From a party that was once a formidable player in Uttar Pradesh politics credited with successful social engineering experiments, the BSP has now been reduced to a lame duck player, with Mayawati ceding much of her traditional support base to the BJP. The biggest failure of the BSP is that it has not encouraged second-rung leadership nor did it allow grassroots leaders to emerge. The growing dictatorial attitude of Mayawati and her coterie, corruption among party leaders, absence of internal democracy and a clear disconnect with the people’s issues are responsible for the party’s decline. It’s debacle shows that the Dalit community can no longer be taken for granted for votes by any party and that they yearn for genuine social and political empowerment. History gave Mayawati, a self-made woman, an opportunity to change the fate of Dalits and the marginalised, but she has squandered it away. None of her political strategies seems to be helping in resurrecting her crumbling career, while the BJP is chipping away at her citadel.

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