Ruthless House Cleaning

Mayawati’s expulsion of her nephew Akash Anand yet again may be an attempt to enforce her primacy, but the move risks diminishing the BSP’s already-sagging fortunes.

Uttar Pradesh

Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is currently undergoing a brutal internal purge with its expelling her nephew and political heir, Akash Anand, from the party yet again. The reason? His defiant response to a show cause notice, which she deemed “selfish and arrogant.” His father-in-law, Ashok Siddharth, a senior party leader and once a close confidant of Mayawati, had already been expelled days earlier for allegedly attempting to engineer a split within the party.

While Mayawati demonstrated her iron grip over the BSP with these moves, this time she risks further diminishing the party’s already shrinking political fortunes in Uttar Pradesh.

The former four-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has long ruled her party with an iron fist, tolerating little dissent and removing even trusted allies if they so much as hint at defying her authority. Her political career has been defined by an unwavering insistence on discipline, a trait inherited from Kanshi Ram, the BSP’s founder and her late mentor.

In May 2023, she had dismissed Anand from all important party posts, branding him “immature.” Yet, barely a month later, she reinstated him, this time as the BSP’s national coordinator, effectively naming him as her political heir.

This bizarre and erratic behaviour raises questions about whether or not her latest expulsion of Anand is final.

The underlying reason for his removal appears to be the growing influence of Siddharth, who was accused of running a parallel power structure within the party. Anand’s close association with his father-in-law, and his perceived attempts to bypass Mayawati’s traditional fundraising system seem to have sealed his fate. Siddharth had long been a powerful figure within the BSP, managing its affairs in southern India and overseeing crucial donations. However, once Ramji Gautam, another close aide of Mayawati, rose to prominence, Siddharth’s influence began to wane.

A series of recent incidents, including party leaders defying Mayawati’s orders to attend a wedding in Agra, further widened the rift. Siddharth’s son was married on February 7, and Mayawati had explicitly instructed BSP leaders not to attend. Anand, however, disregarded her directive, joining several coordinators loyal to Siddharth at the event. This act of defiance reportedly pushed Mayawati over the edge.

Mayawati’s emphasis on discipline has come at a steep cost. The BSP’s influence has declined significantly since its peak in the early 2000s, when it ruled Uttar Pradesh outright. Once a dominant Dalit-led party with a strong base among marginalized communities, the BSP has lost ground to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has aggressively courted Dalit voters, and to the Samajwadi Party (SP), which has strengthened its appeal among backward castes.

Mayawati’s refusal to promote grassroots leaders, her inability to adapt to modern campaign strategies, and her reluctance to form lasting alliances have left the BSP isolated. The party has been virtually wiped out in recent state elections, failing to win a single seat in several crucial contests. Meanwhile, her longtime rival, Akhilesh Yadav of the SP, has managed to reinvent his party’s image, forming coalitions that have kept it relevant in Uttar Pradesh politics.

In sidelining Anand, she is sending a strong message to the party’s rank and file that loyalty to her is non-negotiable. However, with no clear successor in place, and with Anand having already cultivated a following among younger BSP workers, his forced exit could deepen the crisis within the party.

The biggest question now is what Anand will do next. Mayawati’s tight control over the BSP means that Anand has few viable options outside the party.

Unlike politicians such as Mukhtar Ansari or Swami Prasad Maurya, who defected and managed to remain politically relevant, Anand lacks a personal political base of his own.

For Mayawati’s part she may have quashed an internal rebellion, but she has also removed one of the few leaders capable of modernizing the BSP’s approach.