Within 24 hours of a newspaper report claiming BSP vice-president Raja Ram was Mayawati’s secret successor, the party supremo sacked him and replaced him with an unknown entity, Alok Kumar Verma. An unnamed party spokesman announced Verma’s appointment as the party’s “new national vice-president” on Tuesday evening, but made no mention of Raja Ram.

Asserting that “unconfirmed reports affected the authenticity of the media”, the spokesman said the reality about Mayawati's successor “would be revealed at an appropriate time”.

Verma’s appointment took even partymen by surprise as no one knew who he was.

The low-profile Raja Ram suddenly became the focus of media attention because he is about 20 years younger than Mayawati, does not belong to her family, and is a Dalit — the three attributes of her secret successor that Mayawati herself had listed.

In a speech at a party convention on August 9, Mayawati had said she had written her successor's name on the party letterhead, put it in a sealed envelope and given it to two confidantes who would open it at an appropriate time.

What fuelled the speculation about Raja Ram was the fact that he was party vice-president— the post that Mayawati held when Kanshi Ram was president.

In the BSP constitution, there is no cap on the number of general secretaries and secretaries, but there is only one post of vice-president and the person holding this post is most important after the national president.

Section 6 of the Article IV of the BSP Constitution says, “In the absence of the national president, all functions of the national president can be performed by the national vice-president, provided that all decisions taken by the vice-president in such a situation shall be put before the national president for ex post facto approval.”

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