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Kanshi is unhappy with Maya

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshi Ram is worried. Not only worried, he is unhappy too, about the looming future.

Because, he feels there is no one in his party to lead it into the 21st century. Who will look after the Bahujan Samaj movement when he is gone?

"My feeling and worry is about the future," he sighed, "I have my apprehensions... whether in my absence, they will be able to run the show."

Wouldn't Mayawati, he is asked, be able to act the guiding light? Kanshi doesn't think so.

"(She has) acquired some level (in the movement) but that level may not be sufficient to carry it forward," he said.

Incidentally, this is the first time Kanshi Ram is publically expressing his doubts about the second-rung of leadership in his party. Much disappointed at the BSP rout in the general election, he said, "If you wish to push the movement ahead, you must make it dynamic. But that is something which everyone cannot do. It needs some spark. I don't know who will be able to produce the spark."

The BSP chief said his immediate priority was to mobilise Dalits all over the country.

Though Kanshi Ram thought it was not 'proper' to comment on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government as it was just being formed, he was of the opinion that it wouldn't last 'for a very long time' -- it was too 'full of contradictions.'

He ruled out any tie-up with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. "Kanshi Ram," he said, "will never be able to go with Mulayam Singh."

UNI

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