By Pradeep Kapoor

LUCKNOW: After the humiliating performance in UP Assembly polls, Mayawati is giving a facelift to party organisation with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. After a review meeting held on March 27, BSP national President Mayawati appointed her brother Anand as national vice-president and nephew Akash as the powerful national coordinator.

With these appointments Mayawati wants to give the impression that youth leadership is ready to take responsibility of the party to challenge political rivals. Significantly the three coordinators appointed recently — Munkad Ali, Rajkumar Gautam and Dr Vijay Pratap — will report to Akash directly.

For the first time Mayawati has realised the importance of social media and Akash has been directed to increase the presence of the party on these platforms. Mayawati has also directed senior leaders  to prepare detailed report on the poor performance of the party in the recent Assembly polls.

Way back in 2007 BSP came to power on its own and formed the government. Since then there has been a large scale exodus of senior leaders to other parties and the core vote base of dalits also shifted bringing down the party’s vote share to 12 per cent from 22 in 2017 and total number of seat won to one from 19 in the last election.

The BSP national President has directed Akash to hold review meetings of the party organisation at district level every week and at zonal level every fortnight. She had told the recent review meeting that BSP lost as the Muslim community voted for Samajwadi Party to keep BJP away from power but it miserably failed. Now the party would make all efforts to win back the support of the minority community.

The first step taken in this direction is the decision to field Guddu Jamali as the party candidate for Azamgarh Lok Sabha by-election. This seat is vacated by Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh, who won from Karhal Assembly seat from Mainpuri district. Akhilesh opted to retain the Assembly seat and become Leader of Opposition to take on the Yogi government inside the House and as well as on streets.

It would be worth mentioning here that Guddu Jamali had earlier defected from BSP to AIMIM of Asauddin Owasi to contest the Assembly polls but recently returned back to the party. There is a realisation in BSP that with the support of Muslims and backwards, the party could bounce back for major gains in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Mayawati also blamed BJP for false propaganda that she would become President of India in order to wean away her core voters. She categorically denied that she would accept the offer to become President of India. The impression that there was secret understanding between BSP and BJP damaged the chances of party candidates as the support base of dalit voters too shifted to other parties. Now Mayawati has to face tough challenges to prove that there is no understanding with BJP and restore the confidence of its core dalit voters. (IPA Service)

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