BSP is controlled by BJP, says Congress leader Udit Raj

Congress leaders Udit Raj (L). File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Congress leader Udit Raj on Thursday (March 6, 2025) claimed that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati sacked her nephew Akash Anand under pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party since he had called for an alliance of the BSP with the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elecrtions.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Raj, who heads the Dalit, OBC, Minorities and Adivasi (DOMA) Confederation, besides being a Congress spokesperson, said the BSP, which started as a movement before becoming a political party, has now been “BJP-ised”. He invited Mr. Anand to join the Congress.

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The Congress leader claimed that making Mr. Anand coordinator twice and then removing him shows that the BSP is being “controlled by the BJP”.

“Mayawatiji would not have taken such a suicidal step without pressure… Akash Anand had stated that there should be an alliance with the Congress-SP in the upcoming Assembly elections, otherwise we will remain zero. This has troubled the BJP internally,” Mr. Raj claimed.

On Monday, the BSP supremo Mayawati had expelled her nephew from the party, “in the interest of the party and the movement”. A day earlier, she had removed him from all party posts, appointing his father Anand Kumar and Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam as national coordinators in his place.

Mr. Raj claimed that BJP’s vote bank is not going to increase from anywhere else as even raising the issue of Pasmanda Muslims did not help. “The BSP remains the only party whose vote can be dented by the BJP and this would have been difficult if Akash Anand was there,” he added.

The Congress leader also claimed that the BSP supremo had asked her supporters not to vote for SP, even if it meant victory for the BJP. “Is it not true that during the Lok Sabha elections, when Mr. Anand gave an aggressive speech against the BJP, he was removed from the post of coordinator within 24 hours? Is it not true that if the BSP had been a part of INDIA bloc during the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP would not have been able to form the government at the Centre?” Mr. Raj asked.