Why Mayawati may have stripped nephew Akash Anand of top party post

The reason Mayawati ostensibly gave when she made this announcement on Tuesday night on her X (formerly Twitter) page is that he has been removed ‘until he attains maturity’.

While she did not elaborate on what led her to make this decision “in the larger interest of the party”, political observers pointed out that this sacking has come right after Akash Anand was booked by Uttar Pradesh police for allegedly promoting enmity, after he used alleged unparliamentary language while criticising the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at a rally.

According to experts cited by media reports, Mayawati, who is already grappling with her party’s dipping electoral fortunes in the state, was clearly unhappy with her nephew for his speeches attacking the BJP in election rallies.

In his speech, made in Sitapur on April 29, Akash purportedly called the BJP “aatankvadiyon ki party (a party of terrorists)”.

“Where children go hungry, where women and girls face abuse, where the youth are jobless, and where people are exploited under the guise of free rations, there is a government of terrorists,” Anand had said. “Such a government is run by the Taliban in Afghanistan.”

This despite the fact that Anand himself had revealed in media interviews that the BSP strategy in this election, which it is fighting on its own, is not to take on the ruling party aggressively. He had even told in an interview that the party will have to face "retaliation if they attacked the central government, Modi or Amit Shah". And that their community is "not capable of fighting the ED, the CBI or local authorities".

Even as Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav calls BSP, the 'B team for BJP', many of her detractors feel that she is under tremendous pressure for she fears the Enforcement Directorate and other central government agencies. She is worried that they will probe charges of alleged corruption against her, said reports.

According to political observers, this is probably why she has not actively engaged in the political process this time, and not made any serious effort to be included in the Opposition INDIA bloc.

Others have accused the BSP of fielding candidates who will harm the INDIA bloc’s prospects in many seats in Uttar Pradesh. In fact, Mayawait has focussed on targeting the Congress and SP in her speeches in the recent past. And Anand’s virulent speeches against the BJP was going against what she was doing.

After he was booked by the UP police,  Anand, who had flagged off the BSP campaign from Nagina Lok Sabha seat on April 6, suddenly stopped holding election meetings. 

Interestingly, the son of Mayawati’s younger brother Anand Kumar, who had done his MBA from London, was formally introduced to party workers in September 2017, a few months after the BJP came to power in UP in a massive victory.

At that time, the BSP, which had once enjoyed a dominant position in UP politics was reduced to 19 seats in the 403-member assembly.

By the time of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Akash was playing an active role in the party and even got recognition from Akhilesh Yadav and RLD president Ajit Singh, when they joined Akash on the election campaign stage.

In December last year, at a meeting of party office bearers, Mayawati had made him the party's national coordinator and anointed him as her political successor. 

According to experts, this move will probably further dent her chances in the Lok Sabha elections. BSP has already been passing through difficult times and found itself being reduced to being a fringe player managing to win only one seat in the 403 assembly member assembly in the UP elections in 2022.

BSP vote share has also been in the decline over the past years. The BSP has now been completely marginalised in UP's bipolar polity, and it is likely the BSP may end up with a further shrunken vote share in 2024.

Meanwhile, Congress accused her of being under some pressure from the BJP for this 'shocking' move, while Samajwadi Party leader Fakhrul Hasan Chaand alleged that the BSP and the BJP are in an “undeclared alliance”, and the way Anand was removed from his position has proved it.