IN YET another shakeup within the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), party president Mayawati on Thursday appointed her nephew Akash Anand as the organisation’s national convenor.
Just three months ago, Akash was made the party’s chief national coordinator. Sources in the party said this post has now been abolished. The party has made no formal announcement of the new post.
The ambit of the two posts is the same. As national convenor, Akash will be executing the organisational responsibilities of managing party affairs across the country.
But senior BSP leaders said this elevation could pave the way for a bigger responsibility soon.
“With this change, it is clear that Akash’s next elevation will be as party national president. That is the message we are seeing in this development. Akash will keep travelling across the country as he was doing as chief national coordinator,” said a senior BSP functionary.
Akash has been taking up more and more organisational responsibilities within the party. Starting September 10, he will start a Yuva Adhikar Yatra in Bihar to garner support for the forthcoming polls in the state.
That yatra, BSP sources said, would focus on the issues of migration, employment and education and will start from Kaimur. After travelling through 15 districts, it will culminate in four rallies addressed by Mayawati.
The BSP has decided to contest all the seats in Bihar, but its focus, sources indicated, will be on 50 seats.
In the 2020 polls, the BSP and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) had formed a third front in Bihar along with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen. The BSP, which had contested 78 seats, ended up winning a seat. However, the party’s lone MLA, Zama Khan, joined the Janata Dal (United) a few months later. He is currently a minister in the Nitish Kumar-led government. The RLSP had contested 99 seats but failed to win any seat. The AIMIM fielded candidates in 20 seats and won five.
Exit and return
Akash, 30, was first appointed the BSP national coordinator following the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and was tasked with handling the party’s 2024 Lok Sabha campaign. However, in May 2024, after being booked for “promoting enmity” during a campaign speech in Sitapur during the Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati axed him as the party national coordinator as well as her successor.
Akash was subsequently given a second chance after 47 days, when Mayawati reinstated him, both as the national coordinator and her successor, in June last year.
In March this year Akash was removed as the national coordinator for the second time and was also expelled.
There was a turnaround two months later, with Mayawati appointing Akash as the party’s chief national coordinator.
On Thursday, apart from making Akash the national convenor, Mayawati increased the number of national coordinators from three to six.
Lalji Medhankar, Atar Singh Rao and Dharamvir Singh Ashok have taken over as national coordinators and will be responsible for state affairs alongside Ramji Gautam, Rajaram and Randhir Singh Beniwal.
“All those six national coordinators are from the Jatav Dalit community. With these appointments, the party president is trying to win back the support of Jatav voters, who have been the base of the party in the past. The cadre in the districts has been asked to communicate these appointments of Jatav dalits among the community voters,” said a party leader.
Mayawati additionally appointed Vishwanath Pal, a leader from a most backward class (MBC), as president of the BSP’s Uttar Pradesh unit as well as state presidents for another 22 states.