Second, Mayawati seems more isolated now than ever before with even her brother Anand Kumar, who stood like a rock behind her during her political travails, also hinting at separation after she sacked his son Akash Anand from the party. Though she is known to take unilateral decisions, her dependence on the party’s national general secretary, and her legal adviser, Satish Chandra Mishra, may grow further, much to the consternation of others.

At least 176 founder-members and senior leaders have been sacked since Mayawati became the party’s sole decision-maker. Mishra survived despite rumblings against him and his family’s influence on her. Mishra refused to comment on the developments and the accusations against him, when contacted.

Three leaders worked tirelessly to bring the BSP to power in 2007 — Satish Chandra Mishra, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Swami Prasad Maurya. The three leaders worked hard to mobilise Brahmins, Muslims and backwards, respectively, through their various public campaigns after the party had changed its focus from “Bahujan” to “Sarvajan” before the 2007 polls. Since then, Siddiqui and Maurya have been removed from the party.

From Mayawati’s actions to ticket distribution, many experts have described the BSP as the B team of the BJP and they see the latter’s hand in the sacking of the younger Anand who had incurred their wrath after his vitriolic attack against the ruling party.

Logically speaking, the Maharashtra and Bihar formula does not work in UP as BSP has neither the MLAs nor MPs that other parties would want to extract. Mayawati is left with a fragmented vote bank. Political experts said that the BJP always preferred other parties to gradually wither politically as it helps to divide “anti-votes”. The same could come true in UP.

WAY FORWARD

Several Dalit thinkers, who played a vital role in the rise of the BSP, said that Mayawati has not entirely lost the game as the sacking of Anand has strengthened her ‘iron lady’ image — the move could boost her image as someone who, for the sake of achieving a political goal, could even act against her own family members.

Agra-based Devki Nandan Sone, who had a long association with the tallest Dalit leader of the country, Babu Jagjivan Ram said, “Kanshi Ram and Mayawati had filled up the vacuum caused by the death of Jagjivan Ram. Now, in the interest of the Bahujan movement, Mayawati should take a back seat and allow the young to revive it.”

Sone suggested the BSP should have an advisory board comprising non-political Dalit leaders to advise Mayawati on critical issues. “Second, young leaders like Akash Anand, Chandrashekhar Azad, Jignesh Mevani from Gujarat, Rajendra Pal Gautam from Delhi and Ganga Ram Ambedkar should form a joint front and take forward the movement.”

Satish Prakash, a political analyst from Meerut, while insisting that there would be no negative impact of Mayawati’s action against her nephew Akash Anand on voters, said she must take to the streets once again and revive the movement. Thousands of young BSP supporters are ready to take the plunge if she gave the call, he said. According to him, the Congress-BSP alliance at the national level could prove to be a game-changer, bringing the Muslims back into the fold.

Kartar Singh Bharti, senior advocate from the Jatav community, had worked closely with BSP founder Kanshi Ram for decades. He said, “The contribution of Mayawati to Ambedkar’s mission is undeniably huge, but she is equally responsible for its death.” Bharti’s primary question to Mayawati is that why is she apprehensive about the BJP or being unduly influenced by the coterie in BSP. She, according to Bharti, should be aware that none of the parties have the political will send her to jail as they know the negative political outcome of that decision.

Dalit intellectuals, for one, are looking ahead and brainstorming about the way forward — their aim is to revive the decaying political fortunes of the BSP. They are looking to Mayawati, the party’s sole stalwart, to lead the revival. For one, Mayawati’s action against Akash Anand did not upset them: what is frustrating them is Mayawati’s seeming indifference in reviving the Dalit community’s political relevance. Mayawati should step up or be ready for political oblivion.