Mayawati, the vastly shrunk Dalit behemoth who once promised to change the shape of Indian politics, still has the ability to grab news headlines. She has, somehow, managed to sack her nephew and political successor, Akash Anand, twice in less than a year. It is perhaps the final turn in the suicidal path pursued by Behenji over the past several years to destroy her own party.
The rise and fall of the 30-year-old Dalit leader, dramatically elevated by his aunt as her political successor barely a year ago, is a saga in itself. Anand had swiftly become the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo’s favourite after his return from London in 2017 as a 22-year-old business management graduate.
With an eye on the rising challenge from the younger Dalit leader Chandrasekhar Azad, chief of the Bhim Army, Behenji saw Anand as her answer to retaining support among younger Dalits — a segment she feared was slipping away.