BSP Churn May Create Vacuum in UP's Dalit Politics

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

- RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

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

"The limitations of caste mobilization are writ large over the BSP. When the Bahujans (the less empowered and disempowered castes) have no 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).