Mayawati's nephew Akash Anand touches her feet
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati's nephew Akash Anand is back. His aunt had removed him from a key party post a month ago. Today, he received her blessings as he touched her feet after she appointed him BSP national coordinator and named him her political successor.
Mayawati had benched her nephew while he was campaigning in the recently held Lok Sabha election over his "aggressive" speeches, which led to a police case being filed against him. She had advised him to "become mature", until which he would remain benched.
In the BSP's first key meeting on Sunday after the Lok Sabha election, Mayawati put the final stamp on the June 21 decision to allow Mr Anand to campaign for the BSP in the upcoming by-election to an assembly seat in the hill state Uttarakhand.
Mr Anand will also lead the BSP campaign in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election scheduled in 2027.
The BSP, which once ruled UP after a fast, meteoric rise before it disappeared as fast as it had come, did not win a single seat in UP in the national election. She came to power in 2007 in what was seen as a big success of her "social engineering" campaign. The next year, Time magazine had called her "Queen of the Dalits".
Mr Anand's comment that the central government was a "government of terrorists" had led to his removal from the BSP's Lok Sabha election campaign. "This government is a bulldozer government and a government of traitors. The party that leaves its youth hungry and enslaves its elderly is a terrorist government. Taliban runs such a government in Afghanistan," he had said during an election rally in Sitapur.
The BSP's post-election meeting today mainly focussed on why the party could not win even a single seat in UP. Mayawati and her party leader discussed how they can improve their chances in the UP assembly election 2027.
Sources said Mr Anand enjoys the support of BSP workers, despite the party's no-show performance in the Lok Sabha election.