Mayawati’s musical chairs with party leadership leaves BSP cadre anxious

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a national party whose primary support base is Dalits, is currently experiencing growing unease among its members due to frequent changes in senior leadership. This has been exacerbated by the party's ongoing struggle to recover from consecutive losses in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections over the past two years.

As the party's founder and supremo, Mayawati, has repeatedly removed, reinducted and even expelled senior leaders in recent times. Recently, she sidelined her nephew Akash Anand, the party’s "No. 2" and national convenor, citing maturity concerns, and brought in his younger brother, Ishaan, into a meeting of office-bearers in Lucknow.

This latest move has once again sparked questions about the party's leadership structure and the absence of a stable second rung, especially with the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections approaching in early 2027. The BSP's recent electoral performance has been steadily declining, but the party has been in the news primarily for disciplinary actions taken against senior leaders.

While Akash was initially projected as Mayawati's political heir ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he was removed as the BSP's national coordinator in May 2024 due to allegations of promoting enmity during a public rally. After a brief period, Mayawati reinstated him and even named him as her successor, only to expel him again in March 2025.

Throughout this tumultuous period, Akash's father-in-law and former Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Siddharth, who had been expelled in February 2025, was reinstated and given a central coordination role. Mayawati has revoked some expulsions and reappointed certain leaders, such as Randhir Singh Beniwal and Jai Prakash Singh, but others, like Anant Kumar Mishra, have been expelled for alleged anti-party activities.

The repeated changes in leadership have raised concerns among the BSP's cadre, who view the party as a disciplined, hierarchically organized entity. The recent actions against Akash and other party members have created a sense of instability within the party, particularly as the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are imminent.