In a significant decision, indicating the possible line of succession in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), supremo Mayawati on Friday declared her brother Anand Kumar as the vice president of the party on condition that he would dedicate himself to the organisation and never contest polls or hold office of power.
In a departure from her earlier strategy, Ms. Mayawati also expressed her openness to join hands with anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties. Ms. Mayawati made the announcements here on the birth anniversary of B. R. Ambedkar.
In her address at the sprawling Ambedkar Park, Ms. Mayawati stressed she no longer had any reservations in “taking help of or joining hands with” other anti-BJP parties in her “struggle” against the issue of alleged EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) tampering, and the BJP in order to “save democracy in the country”.
The BSP has suffered three back-to-back electoral setbacks and observers argue that if it needs to regain its position, it will need to change tack and join hands with other non-BJP parties,
The change in posturing was evident in Ms. Mayawati’s tone. While she maintained a defiant stand on the issue of EVMs, saying her struggle against the alleged tampering of the machines would continue till her party “gets justice”, she said she was willing to work with other parties for the cause.
“I want to inform the top leadership of the BJP that even if they try to harass me at all levels through misuse of both State and Central government machinery, to save democracy I will not step back,” Ms. Mayawati said to a loud applause.
While entrusting Mr. Kumar with the “important responsibility” of vice-president, Ms. Mayawati said her brother would work for the party organisation in a “selfless” manner and not aspire to become an MLA, MP, minister or the chief minister. Mr. Kumar is a low-profile businessman based in Delhi, and is known to handle the BSP’s finances.
Under the scanner
On the radar of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (I-T) Department over his allegedly meteoric rise in fortune, the latter reportedly raided multiple locations linked to his business last week.
Published - April 14, 2017 01:27 pm IST
