Ahead of Delhi polls, Akash Anand likely to be young face of BSP

LUCKNOW After a string of electoral setbacks, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is looking at the Delhi assembly elections in February to reclaim its lost political space. Party chief Mayawati’s nephew and national coordinator, Akash Anand, is likely to be projected as the young face of the party in a bid to expand its outreach among youths and urban voters in the National Capital.

The Election Commission of India has not announced the dates yet, but the term of the current assembly in Delhi expires on February 23, 2025, and the polls are to be completed before it.

BSP functionaries confirmed that Anand has already started gearing up for Delhi polls and mulling over different plans in consultation with party chief Mayawati. They said Anand will lead the poll campaign in Delhi and hold cadre camps to galvanize Dalits and the underprivileged in Delhi.

The major challenge for the party is to overcome the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in power in Delhi and rapidly expanding its footprint in other states. “The AAP has pushed the BSP to the sidelines in recent years after once showing the promise of becoming a dominant player in the bipolar politics of the Congress and the BJP in the National Capital. Now, the AAP has made inroads in the voter base of the Congress and the BSP.” they said, exuding confidence that the party will better its performance in Delhi elections.

Another BSP functionary emphasized that Akash Anand was made familiar with the functioning of the party forerunner, the All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees’ Federation (BAMCEF) in June and July. In a state level meeting , Mayawati had directed to strengthen BAMCEF and form “bhaichara” (brotherhood) committees of the BSP to ramp up its public connect, he added.

Akash Anand, who entered politics in 2017, initially focused on organizational work outside UP. He played a crucial role in the 2018 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Before the Lok Sabha elections, BSP chief Mayawati designated him as her successor.

Sharing details of BSP’s past performance in Delhi, he stated that the party won two seats in the 2008 assembly polls, bagging 14.05% of votes, after the party won 206 seats in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh elections. The party, which had bagged 1.88% of votes in its debut in Delhi polls in 1993, was, however, unable to build on its 2008 performance and garnered only 1.30%, an all-time low in 2015.

Formed in 1984, the BSP fielded candidates on 55 seats and bagged 1.88% votes when it contested the first assembly polls of Delhi in 1993. It did marginally well in 1998, fielding 40 candidates, getting 5.76% votes, but its vote share again dropped to 5.35% in 2013 when it fielded 69 candidates. The BSP saw its worst-ever performance in 2015 when it bagged 1.30% of votes after fielding candidates on all 70 seats.

Similarly, the BSP fared poorly, winning nine out of 80 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, one seat in the 2022 UP assembly polls and no seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In four decades of its political journey since its inception on April 14, 1984, the BSP has been going through a major crisis to regain its credibility after poor performances.