LUCKNOW: In a major political development in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday removed her nephew Akash Anand, 28, from the post of the party’s National Coordinator and also as her successor “in the larger interest of the BSP”.
Taking to microblogging site X, Mayawati posted: “In the interest of the party and Bahujan movement, Akash Anand, who was appointed party’s National Coordinator and my successor, is being removed from both the crucial responsibilities till he attains full maturity.”
Through a series of posts, the BSP chief delved into the background of the party and how it was associated with the honour of Dr BR Ambedkar and was also a movement for social change.
She wrote: “The BSP, besides being a party, has also been associated with the pride and honour of Dr BR Ambedkar besides being a movement for social change. For this party, both Kanshi Ramji and I dedicated our whole life. In order to give impetus to this movement, the new generation is being nurtured.”
“In this connection, while promoting others in the party, Akash Anand was appointed BSP national coordinator and my heir. But in the larger interest of the party and the movement, he is being removed from both the crucial responsibilities till he attains full maturity,” she wrote in next post.
However, in her last post of the series, the BSP chief wrote: “His (Akash Anand) father Anand Kumar will continue to fulfil his responsibilities in the party and the movement as before. Therefore, the leadership of BSP is not going to shy away from making every kind of sacrifice in the interest of the party and the movement and in taking forward the caravan of Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar."
Significantly, Akash Anand, a key campaigner for the party in the Lok Sabha election who had started off the party campaign on a fiery note by addressing his first poll rally in Nagina, Mayawati’s bastion, last month, had called off his two election rallies in Hamirpur and Auriayya scheduled for this week.
The move came days after Anand was booked for allegedly making “objectionable” remarks during a public address in Sitapur on April 28. He had hit out at the BJP in his speech.
Party leaders had attributed the cancellation of those rallies to “personal reasons.”
Anand has not addressed any public meetings in Uttar Pradesh or elsewhere since April 28.
According to a party insider, Mayawati disapproved of the way Akash Anand was addressing poll rallies. “It was not how Behenji likes to run the party. Criticising your opponent is one thing, but being so aggressive in expression and language is something that the BSP chief wouldn’t have liked,” said the leader seeking anonymity.
The Sitapur police had registered multiple FIRs against Anand for allegedly making “objectionable” comments during a rally on April 28. He was accused of using “unparliamentary language” to incite violence, police said. In a video, Akash Anand is heard calling the the ruling dispensation “gaddaro ki sarkar (a government of traitors)”. He was also heard urging people to hit representatives of other parties seeking votes with shoes, sticks and slippers.
