Mayawati re-elected BSP chief for 6th time

LUCKNOW: Mayawati was unanimously re-elected as the BSP national president for the sixth time in a row on Tuesday.

The decision was taken in the meeting of the party’s central executive committee and all-India units in Lucknow.

Expressing gratitude after her re-election, Mayawati said: “It was on December 15, 2001, that BSP founder Kanshi Ram Ji had publicly declared me the successor of the party and movement, and it was on September 18, 2003, that I assumed the responsibility of the post of national president of BSP."

Her re-election came a day after she publicly denied rumours of her retirement from active politics and called out the opposition for spreading false news against the party's “iron leadership to downgrade the morale of party workers”.

She claimed that the opposition has been spreading canards since the day she declared her nephew Akash Anand as her political successor in Dec 2023.

“I made Akash Anand my successor in BSP, only to fill in my absence or be there when I am not well or there is some emergency," she said.

Mayawati is only the second BSP leader after Kanshi Ram, who founded the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984, to have held the post of party national president. She is also the party’s longest serving chief. BSP elects a national president every five years.

The BSP's leadership comprises a national president, vice president, and national coordinator. Mayawati's brother Anand Kumar is the vice-president while Akash Anand is the national coordinator.