LUCKNOW: Who is Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawatis heir apparent? If party sources are to be believed, it is none other than its low-profile vice-president Rajaram.

An intense debate about Mayawatis successor has been raging in political circles since she told a public rally on August 9 that there was a conspiracy to assassinate her.

But she told her supporters not to worry, saying her successor had been chosen and that the party would run as usual.

BSP sources say the only likely person to take over the leadership of the party is the 35-year-old Rajaram.

Rajaram, presently the partys Madhya Pradesh in-charge, is the only one in the party to don the post of vice-president. It is a post Mayawati held when her mentor and BSP founder-leader Kanshi Ram was president.

Five feet, eight inches tall, the fair and handsome Rajaram was once the BSPs Delhi unit secretary. He is presently a member of the Uttar Pradesh legislative council. His term expires next year.

Rajaram is arguably the only person in the party who is part of the legacy of the late Kanshi Ram. "He is one of very few people of the Kanshi Ram era who is with Mayawati today. Others joined the BSP later," a party source said.

Mayawati had also told the Lucknow rally that she had handed over a sealed envelope, containing the name of her successor, to two of her confidants.

She said: "He is 18 to 20 years younger to me, is not from my family and he is from my chamar community. What is he and where he stays, I have given everything in the letter in the sealed envelope."

The description fits Rajaram to the T.

Mayawati was born in 1956,and Rajaram is younger by as many years as she said. He does belong to her community, and he is not from her family.
Source : DNA