Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has removed nephew Akash Anand as the party’s national coordinator and her successor — a development that comes days after he was booked for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government as “terrorist”.
In a post on X Tuesday, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati said Akash, whom she had named her successor in December, would stand removed from the position until “he gains maturity”.
The 28-year-old was booked over a speech made late last month at a rally in Sitapur in which he compared the BJP government to the Taliban and called it a “terrorist government”.
2. इसी क्रम में पार्टी में, अन्य लोगों को आगे बढ़ाने के साथ ही, श्री आकाश आनन्द को नेशनल कोओर्डिनेटर व अपना उत्तराधिकारी घोषित किया, किन्तु पार्टी व मूवमेन्ट के व्यापक हित में पूर्ण परिपक्वता (maturity) आने तक अभी उन्हें इन दोनों अहम जिम्मेदारियों से अलग किया जा रहा है।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) May 7, 2024
Party insiders, meanwhile, have told ThePrint that the decision could demoralise the party cadre.
Sitapur votes in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls on 13 May.
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‘Will demoralise workers’
Naming Akash her political successor last December, Mayawati had asked party workers to consider him their leader if something were to happen to her.
Her decision now to remove him from that position comes a week after two election meetings that Akash was scheduled to address on 1 May were cancelled.
In her post Tuesday, though, Mayawati said Akash’s father Anand Kumar, a businessman, would continue serving the party “as he did before”.
1. विदित है कि बीएसपी एक पार्टी के साथ ही बाबा साहेब डा भीमराव अम्बेडकर के आत्म-सम्मान व स्वाभिमान तथा सामाजिक परिवर्तन का भी मूवमेन्ट है जिसके लिए मान्य. श्री कांशीराम जी व मैंने खुद भी अपनी पूरी ज़िन्दगी समर्पित की है और इसे गति देने के लिए नई पीढ़ी को भी तैयार किया जा रहा है।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) May 7, 2024
Asked about the move, BSP MLC Bhimrao Ambedkar said that “behenji” — as Mayawati is referred to — had “tweeted for the party’s cause and mission”.
“Behenji is the mission,” he said. “She can’t weaken the mission. She has sacrificed her entire life for it and remains committed to it.”
But some BSP insiders conceded that the move could be a setback to the already struggling party. Although the party won 10 parliamentary seats in 2019 in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, its tally in the UP assembly sunk to an all-time low of 1 seat in 2022 from 19 in 2017.
Despite apprehensions about him, Akash had belied expectations and had begun to draw crowds, one senior party leader said.
“With his (Akash’s) arrival in the UP political scene, things had changed for the better. Earlier, people were wondering whether workers would accept him. However, after three rallies, the way he attracted attention and connected with the public had given new hope to party workers. This will certainly demoralise the workers but behenji is our leader and no one can question her decision,” this leader said.
This leader also saw nothing wrong with Akash’s comments, saying that “no pillar of democracy, whether the media or opposition, has been able to function like before”.
“Look at the way CMs have been jailed without evidence,” this leader said.
In his speech on 28 April, Akash had also called the BJP administration “a government of traitors”.
“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,” Akash had said.
The central BJP government had given Akash Y+ security cover in March.
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