The founder-president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Kanshi Ram, and his protege Mayawati chose to stay unmarried to dedicate their lives to their mission of empowering Dalits.
Kanshi Ram, as we know, mentored Mayawati and handed over his political legacy to her though she was not a member of his family.
Ironically, family troubles did not spare him later in life. Mayawati, for one, deviating from the stern position on succession, picked a family member as her political heir. But her argument for choosing a family member as her heir is unconvincing.
She explained in a tweet: “Kanshi Ram shunned family politics. As his disciple I am also against it. Had I not been a girl, I would not have allowed any of my siblings in the party functioning. I decided not to marry and was thus compelled to keep one of my siblings with me—my youngest brother Anand Kumar—for my care and security”. (Mayawati had nine siblings, six of them brothers.)
Mayawati has barred Anand from entrusting any party responsibility to his two sons or even to their children after they grow up though he has been allowed to involve his daughter Deepika, a law student, in party affairs. It’s clear Anand, who stood like a rock behind her through her political career, continues to enjoy her trust even though his own sons have been thrown out of the BSP.
Mayawati began to rely on her brother Anand Kumar after the death of her mentor Kanshi Ram in 2006, especially after she became the Uttar Pradesh chief minister for the fourth time in 2007. She said, in a post on X recently, that she had to depend on her brother as she was a woman. Prior to that, her family only made a public appearance on her birthday. Incidentally, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigated Anand Kumar in a disproportionate assets case. The income tax department too had attached a ₹400-crore ‘benami property’ belonging to him in 2019.
{{/usCountry}}Mayawati began to rely on her brother Anand Kumar after the death of her mentor Kanshi Ram in 2006, especially after she became the Uttar Pradesh chief minister for the fourth time in 2007. She said, in a post on X recently, that she had to depend on her brother as she was a woman. Prior to that, her family only made a public appearance on her birthday. Incidentally, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigated Anand Kumar in a disproportionate assets case. The income tax department too had attached a ₹400-crore ‘benami property’ belonging to him in 2019.
{{/usCountry}}BSP’s succession path
Mayawati looked for a successor within the family instead of among leaders who had travelled with her in an arduous political journey. She decided on her brother’s son Akash Anand. Even after she expelled Akash Anand, 31, on September 10 -- following multiple dismissals and reinstatements, besides compelling his father-in-law Ashok Siddharth, an old Ambedkarite, to retire from active politics -- she picked her other nephew Ishan Anand (27), Akash’s younger brother.
A day later, however, she decided to keep both sons of Anand Kumar away from party politics and decided instead to groom his daughter Deepika. That she did not look beyond Anand reflects the seeming insecurity and mistrust she has of her other siblings or their children or party leaders.
The development has led to speculation about the family’s control over funds and her compulsion to depend on them to navigate the party’s future as she may not trust an outsider though there are several old-timers committed to the movement.
Senior leader Satish Chandra Mishra, a Brahmin, is unacceptable to the party cadre. After all, the party was formed to fight Brahmin social hegemony. The BSP, touted to be the country’s first political party launched by a Dalit for Dalits, has perhaps reached a plateau.
A split in the first-of-its kind party is not imminent but the party’s mission to carry forward Ambedkar’s legacy and political fortunes has been compromised, that too a few months before the 2027 assembly elections in three states where the party has a critical presence -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana.
Dismay among cadres
There is widespread dismay among the party cadre, who were expecting a turnaround in the BSP’s political fortunes in 2027. After November 2026, when the term of its only Rajya Sabha member would end, the BSP, for the first time, will have no representation in any legislature of the country. However, it remains a national party.
Responding to her several lengthy posts on X, many of her diehard supporters are endorsing Mayawati’s decisions taken in the Bahujan Samaj’s interest. However, many BSP loyalists are urging her to bring back Akash Anand in the party’s interest and also in view of upcoming elections.
Questions are also being asked about the party’s falling graph and her silence on BJP, while targeting the SP and the Congress party.
What’s next? The answer is “wait and watch”. Akash will not quit the party nor any mainstream party would entertain him as it would upset Mayawati. Also, though Akash may be the future of the BSP, the party’s bulk support is with ‘Behenji’ today.
Nonetheless, the party’s slide could sharpen as disillusioned Dalit votes will split into several parts. Already, the youth is getting attracted to Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad, who heads the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).
Kanshi Ram’s family troubles
Kanshi Ram had stopped meeting his family members after he quit his job in Pune and started working for Dalits and the downtrodden, sometime in the 1960s.There were reports that he had failed to recognise his younger brother Dalbara Singh, in his twenties, when he once met him. Kanshi Ram also did not attend his father’s last rites.
Yet family conflict chased him after he suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2003 and Mayawati, whom he had announced as his successor in 2001, decided to bring the ailing Kanshi Ram to her Humayun Road home in Delhi for medical care.
However, his family wanted to take him to his native village in Punjab. His brother made every possible effort to even take him forcibly but failed. He went to the court and his plea was rejected by both the Delhi high court and Supreme Court. He had even launched a political outfit, Manyawar Kanshiram Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, but failed to make any headway.