Akash Anand: Can Mayawati’s chosen political heir resuscitate BSP?
How much value would Akash Anand be able to add to the party whose political stock is now clearly on a downswing is a million-dollar question
She often flayed her political rivals for running their parties on dynastic lines. But when it came to deciding the line of succession within her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mayawati could not resist the lure of choosing a political heir from her own family.
The naming of her nephew Akash Anand as her “successor” speaks volumes of how Mayawati has proved to be no different from her arch-political foes like the Gandhis, the Yadavs or other regional satraps like the Karunanidhis, the Pawars, the Badals or the Chautalas among others.
Like most inheritors of their family’s political legacies, Akash Anand too is now the heir of a diminishing political behemoth acquired by her ‘bua’ (paternal aunt), who, but for her politics marred by vacillations and misadventures, could have been the undisputed leader of Dalits across the country.
What distinguishes Mayawati’s case from that of an Akhilesh Yadav, MK Stalin or Rahul Gandhi is that her mentor and BSP founder Kanshi Ram, was not biologically connected with her family. The inimitable BSP founder had actually sweated it out to build a political outfit for the most deprived and downtrodden communities. If he anointed Mayawati as his successor, it was not because of any bloodline, but largely on merit.
Mayawati’s rise
While it is largely believed that he was impressed by her on account of various extraneous factors, the fact remains that he had handpicked Mayawati after hearing her fiery speech (in the 80s) at Delhi’s Constitution Club where Kanshi Ram had organized a meet of the Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF).
The BAMCEF was established by Kanshi Ram to mobilise government employees belonging to the downtrodden castes and was, along with the DS-4 or the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, an earlier iteration of what eventually became the political outfit called the BSP.
Mayawati had shot into the spotlight essentially because she questioned the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi’s reference to the then untouchables as “Harijans” (God’s children).” “Agar hum Bhagwan ke bachche hain toh kya aur log dayin ke bachche hain?” (If we are God’s children, are all others the children of the devil), she had argued at the Constitution Club meeting, while pointedly accusing the Mahatma of humiliating the entire Dalit community.
This outrageous attack on Gandhi was what gave Mayawati a different identity that helped her establish herself as an unconventional, vociferous Dalit politician who would not spare anyone of her famous verbal lashings.
Precisely 22 years ago, in 2001, Kanshi Ram declared Mayawati as his successor. Given that she has now anointed her nephew as her political heir and supremo-in-waiting of the BSP, it must also be pointed out that Mayawati had moved heaven and earth to keep Kanshi Ram’s entire family at bay when she was in line to inherit the BSP founder’s political legacy.
Akash Anand
Of course, that was well after Mayawati had proved herself not only as vice-president of the party but had also done two brief stints as chief minister of the country’s most populous state.
Akash Anand has none of his aunt’s laurels in his profile. The first public appearance he made was in 2017 and later during the party’s campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in 2022, when, incidentally, the BSP plummeted to its worst-ever electoral performance in the state, winning only a lone seat in the 403-member Vidhan Sabha.
At 28 today, all that Akash has to boast about is that he is Mayawati’s nephew. His father Anand Kumar, who is Mayawati’s younger brother, began his career as a low-ranking employee in the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) office while Mayawati was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
All that was heard about him was only when enforcement agencies questioned the sudden acquisition of his massive wealth; the low-ranking employee had suddenly become a billionaire entrepreneur and real estate builder-developer.
Akash’s formal political grooming now begins at a time when the party is at its lowest ebb in the state where Mayawati ruled four times – thrice with BJP’s support and once with an absolute majority of her own party.
Pathetic showing
Even in the recently concluded Assembly polls in the three important Hindi-speaking states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the BSP’s performance remained dismal. Other than winning two of the 200 seats in Rajasthan, it failed to make any mark in Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh, though Mayawati fielded her candidates in 80 percent of the constituencies of each of these states and addressed several rallies, often accompanied by Akash, who was also sent to campaign in other areas.
Akash has now been entrusted with the responsibility of strengthening the party in states other than Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which Mayawati has chosen to keep under her direct control. Whether he would be in a position to turn the party around in any of these states where Mayawati had herself failed is quite doubtful.
So far, the only feather in Akash’s cap is bringing the party to social media platforms during the 2022 campaign. How much value would he be able to add to the party whose political stock is now clearly on a downswing is a million-dollar question even if he emerges as a perfect custodian of Mayawati’s vast monetary acquisitions.
