Mayawati removes nephew Akash Anand as BSP national coordinator and her political heir

Lucknow: Less than five months after passing the mantle to him, and in the middle of the Lok Sabha polls, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday sacked her nephew Akash Anand as her political heir and the party's national coordinator saying that he was not ''fully matured''.

In a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter), Mayawati said that the decision to remove Akash Anand as party's national coordinator and her political heir had been taken keeping in view the larger interest of the 'movement' (Mayawati calls her party a movement).

''It is well known that besides being a party, the BSP is also a movement for social change and self-pride and dignity of B R Ambedkar for which Kanshiram (BSP founder) and myself have dedicated our lives...we are also preparing the new generation to speed up this process,'' she said in her post.

''Keeping this in mind, I had declared Akash Anand as the party's national coordinator and my political heir.....he is being relieved of both these responsibilities in the larger interest of the movement till he becomes fully matured,'' the BSP supremo said.

She, however, said that Akash Anand's father Anand Kumar would continue to discharge his responsibilities as before.

Although it was not clear what prompted Mayawati to remove Akash Anand, sources in the party said that the BSP supremo was not happy with the utterances of her nephew at his election rallies. Akash was recently booked after he compared the BJP with the Talibans at an election meeting in Sitapur district.

Akash, who had been holding election meetings across the country, suddenly stopped holding meetings after being booked a few days back.

Mayawati, who had often been dubbed as the 'B' team of BJP by the Samajwadi Party (SP), might have taken the decision to avoid attacks from the saffron party.

The BSP supremo had on December 10 last year appointed Akash Anand as the party's national coordinator and her political heir at a meeting of the party office bearers here. Almost all important office bearers of the BSP were present at the meeting which was presided over by Mayawati.

Anand, who is the son of Mayawati's younger brother Anand Kumar, was inducted into active politics by the BSP supremo at a rally at Saharanpur in 2017. Akash was also included in the list of star campaigners of the BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Mayawati's decision to sack Akash has come in the middle of the Lok Sabha polls and may adversely affect her party's election campaign in UP and elsewhere. BSP was already passing through difficult times and found itself reduced to a fringe player managing to win only one seat in the 403 member assembly in the UP assembly polls in 2022.

BSP, which had won 19 seats in the 2017 assembly polls, also saw its vote percentage declining sharply from around 21 per cent in the previous polls to 12 per cent in this election indicating a massive erosion in its support base in the state. Political analysts say that a section of the 'Jatavs' may have deserted Mayawati and supported the BJP.

BSP's vote share has also witnessed gradual decline over the past few years. BSP had secured a little over 30 per cent votes in 2007, when it had formed the government in the state. It went down to less than 26 per cent in 2012 and further declined to around 22 per cent in 2017.

Senior leaders like Ram Achal Rajbhar, former UP BSP president, Swami Prasad Maurya and Lalji Verma, a one time close confidante of Mayawati, also deserted her on the eve of the 2022 assembly poll in the state.