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Kanshi Ram death anniversary: BSP’s show of strength in Lucknow today
Mayawati to share stage with nephew Akash Anand, likely to make announcements about his role in Uttar Pradesh
The stage is set for the Bahujan Samaj Party’s show of strength on the occasion of party founder Kanshi Ram’s 19th death anniversary in Lucknow on Thursday.
A day before the event, the iconic Kanshi Ram memorial and city roads were draped in blue on Wednesday with BSP banners, hoardings and posters holding sway as party workers from across Uttar Pradesh began arriving in the state capital to pay tribute to the party founder Kanshi Ram.
Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand, the party’s newly appointed national convenor, will share the main stage with her for the first time at the public meeting. She is likely to reintroduce him to the party cadre and make announcements regarding his role in Uttar Pradesh. Akash is seen as the heir apparent and Mayawati is projecting him as the party’s youth face.
In 2019, Akash Anand had addressed a joint rally with other leaders of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Agra after the Election Commission banned Mayawati from campaigning for 48 hours.
Mayawati has planned the programme as she fine-tunes plans for her party to regain lost ground in the run-up to the 2027 assembly elections after successive poll defeats and a decline in vote share.
“Behenji (Mayawati) will give a message to the party cadre from the Kanshi Ram memorial to prepare for the 2027 assembly election and motivate the workers who are downcast due to the party’s defeat in assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” a BSP leader said.
Besides fall in vote share, desertion by senior party leaders, no representation for the party in Parliament, only one member in the UP legislative assembly and zero representation in the legislative council are among the troubles for the party led by Mayawati, a four-time former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
After defeats in 2012, 2017 and 2022 assembly polls and the 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati is in search of a winning formula.
With successful organisation of the rally, she plans to give the message that despite being out of power since 2012, the BSP maintains its hold over its support base, the Dalits.
At recent review meetings, Mayawati had announced that BSP will go solo in elections, leading to debate in party circles whether the strategy will work when alliances are in vogue.
Political observer Professor Vivek Kumar said, “The earlier alliance experiments of the BSP clearly show that it has been a loser in elections. The BSP was able to transfer its votes to its ally but failed to get the partner’s votes in return.”
“Mayawati knows the party has more bargaining power in a post-poll scenario.If the BSP manages to win around 30-40 seats in the assembly election, it will be better positioned to bargain with the party vying to form the government,” he said.
Dalit ideologue Anant Rao Akela said, “The BSP’s support base as well as vote share are shrinking in successive elections. The BJP, SP and Congress have made inroads into its Dalit vote base. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the SP-Congress got a large share of the Dalit vote.The rise of Azad Samaj Party leader Chandrashekhar has proved to be another challenge for the BSP. Mayawati will have to work on a fresh strategy.”
Nevertheless, BSP state president Vishwanath Pal is confident of the party’s comeback in 2027.
“Along with organising cadre camps in all the 403 assembly constituencies, the BSP is reaching out to all the communities with the sarvajan hitay- sarvajan sukhay formula (welfare of all the communities),” he said.
