By IANS,
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati late Tuesday appointed Alok Kumar Verma as the second national vice president of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The move came close on the heels of media reports that the secretly appointed successor to her legacy was none other than BSP vice president Raja Ram, a member of the state upper house.
Verma was as little known in the party as Raja Ram. Political analysts were of the view that both leaders were given the otherwise all important position of the party’s national vice president only to confuse BSP’s political rivals.
Speculation over her successor is rife ever since Mayawati declared at a BSP conclave here Aug 9 that she had already made up her mind on her official heir to the party legacy. “This person is 18-20 years younger to me, belongs to my own – chamar – community and I have left his name in a sealed packet kept with one of my close confidantes.”