Mayawati re-elected BSP president, says party not disappointed despite poll reverses

Lucknow: Mayawati was unanimously re-elected as the national president of the BSP on Tuesday and said that despite electoral reverses, the BSP is not disappointed, according to a party statement.

The decision was taken during a special meeting of the BSP Central Executive Committee (CEC) and senior office bearers at the national-level and state party units, and representatives from all over the country, it said.

Mayawati, 68, is a four-time former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. BSP founder Kanshi Ram had declared her as his political successor more than two decades ago. She was elected the party president for the first time in 2003, a post that has remained with her ever since.

She assured party followers that she is ready to make any sacrifice to advance the humanitarian mission of “great people”, particularly those born in Dalit, Adivasi and OBC communities, through the BSP movement, the statement said.

Two days ago, Mayawati had taken to social media to announce that her retirement from active politics was "out of question". On May 27, 2018, Mayawati had famously told party workers in Lucknow that she would continue as the party president for the next 20 years until she is too old for the responsibility.

Addressing the party workers here on Tuesday, Mayawati said the movement of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar for self-respect and dignity of bahujans is now advancing and has become so strong that it cannot be misled from its goal whatsoever.

"Moreover, despite electoral reverses, the BSP is not disappointed. It is stoutly pursuing the goal and welfare principle of 'Bahujan Hitaye and Bahujan Sukhaye' (progress and prosperity of bahujans) on the strength of the bahujan samaj of all the exploited, oppressed poor and toiling masses," she said.

She also hit out at the Congress and the BJP, claiming the two national parties are not "true well-wishers of minorities and backward communities in the country.

"Like anti-Congressism in the past, the politics of the country has now become entangled in anti-BJPism whereas both these parties and their alliances are neither true well-wishers of bahujans, Dalits, adivasis, OBCs, Muslims and other religious minorities nor can they ever be so because their thinking about bahujans... is narrow, casteist, and communal," she alleged.

"This is the main reason why during the rule of both these parties and their alliances, which have been in power for most of the time in the country, there has not yet been the required improvement in the condition of bahujans and disparities of every kind have been increasing in the society," she added.