Maya’s mid-poll change in strategy: Akash’s abrupt demotion, purge of candidates aimed at benefiting BJP?

LUCKNOW The onset of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw a two-pronged strategy by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with Mayawati leading the poll campaign and her nephew Akash Anand addressing rallies across UP to dent into the rival support base. The party fielded candidates according to the local caste equations and forced the SP-led INDIA Bloc and the BJP-led NDA to redraw their strategies.

But with the elections moving from west to east UP after phase 3, the BSP chief’s change of strategy is interesting to watch. Akash Anand’s removal from the post of BSP national coordinator and change of candidates on key Lok Sabha seats including Jaunpur, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Domriaganj Amethi and Azamgarh has raised doubts over Mayawati’s plan to create ripples within the NDA and INDIA bloc.

The withdrawal of Akash from the poll campaign has put the brakes on the party’s poll momentum and the change of candidates has created confusion among the cadre as INDIA bloc leaders alleged that Mayawati withdrew strong candidates from the field to give an edge to the NDA in the Lok Sabha elections.

The replacement of Jaunpur candidate Shrikala Reddy with sitting MP Shyam Singh Yadav, Basti candidate Daya Shankar Mishra with Luv Kush Patel and Ravi Prakash Maurya being replaced by Nanhe Singh Chauhan in Amethi led to rumblings in the BSP as these changes gave an advantage to the NDA candidates on the three seats.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the actual reason behind changes by the BSP chief is that party is not seen winning even a single seat and most of the traditional supporters of the BSP are also voting for INDIA Alliance this time to save the Constitution.

Mayawati’s decision to remove Akash Anand from the key post shocked his supporters who feared that the party chief terming him “immature” may give an advantage to Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad. To check dissent among his supporters, Akash, in a post on social media platform X on Thursday, stated: “Mayawati ji is an ideal for the entire Bahujan Samaj, crores of countrymen worship you. It is because of your struggles that today our society has got such political power due to which the Bahujan Samaj has been able to learn to live with respect.”

“You are our universally accepted leader. Your orders are our obedience. I will continue to fight for Bhim Mission and my society till my last breath,” he added.

Mayawati had named Akash Anand as her political successor in December last year. Addressing party leaders, she announced that after her, the reins of the party will be in the hands of her nephew Akash Anand.

After Chandrashekhar filed nomination from Nagina on March 22 and claimed legacy of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Mayawati amended her strategy, sensing a challenge to the BSP’s dominance over Dalit politics. She decided to call Akash to Uttar Pradesh to launch the party campaign from Nagina on April 6.

To mobilize the party cadre, particularly youths, Akash launched a high- pitched campaign from west UP to east UP, attacking the BJP, SP and Congress. In a public meeting in Sitapur, he went hammer and tongs at the BJP government, which was considered against the rules and policies of BSP.

The district police registered an FIR against Akash and 36 other partymen over the violation of the model code of conduct under IPC sections-502(2) (promoting hatred), and Section 125 of the Representation of People’s Act. His public meetings in Lucknow and Kanpur on May 1 were postponed.

A political observer, SK Singh, said after grabbing power with social engineering formula in 2007, the BSP has moved from the offensive campaign of ‘tilak, tarazu aur talwar inko maro jute chaar’ to ‘Haathi nahi Ganesh hain Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh hain’. Some cadre leaders saw it as an amendment to the party’s identity that was based on Dalit empowerment.

Aware of the churning in the party cadre and rise of the Bhim Army, Akash Anand launched an aggressive campaign. Addressing a public meeting, he alleged: “The BJP government is a bulldozer government and a government of traitors. The party that leaves its youth hungry and enslaves its elderly is a terrorist government,” he said in the rally.

In 2021, Mayawati had removed two national general secretaries, Jai Prakash Singh and Vir Singh on the allegation of delivering speeches that had potential of harming the party’s political interests. Again, when Mayawati is setting the pitch for political realignments after the Lok Sabha election, the attack on the BJP government apparently upset her, forcing her to remove her nephew from the key post, said political observers.