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Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati declared her nephew, Akash Anand, as her successor, on Sunday, December 10. “Akash (Anand) has been declared the ‘uttaradhikari (heir)’ by Mayawatiji,” Udayveer Singh, the BSP’s Shahjahanpur district unit chief, said.
The announcement came as Mayawati chaired a meeting of the party workers on Sunday at the party’s state office in Lucknow.
Akash Anand has been given the responsibility to strengthen the BSP’s organisation all over the country except Uttar Pradesh, Singh was quoted by PTI as saying. The party’s official statement, however, did not mention any such decision. According to the Hindustan Times, Mayawati will continue to monitor Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Here are five things to know about Akash Anand:
1. Akash Anand, 28, is the son of Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar. On his official account on X, Akash describes himself as “A young supporter of Baba Saheb’s vision”. He is the national coordinator of the BSP. Akash was appointed as the party’s national coordinator in 2019 when Mayawati rejigged the party organisation after breaking its alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Hindustan Times reported.
2. Akash entered politics in 2017, at the age of 22, NDTV said. Mayawati introduced Akash to the senior party functionaries in 2017 as an MBA graduate from London. She reportedly told them that he would also be involved in party affairs.
3. Mayawati announced the entry of her nephew Akash Anand into the party in 2019. At that time, she countered, saying, “…I appointed Anand as Vice President but due to nepotism, he himself decided not to take the post. Unfortunately, after Akash was seen on my birthday, some channels dragged him and presented him as the future face of the party.”
4. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Akash Anand managed the election campaign strategy of the BSP chief. He addressed his first rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra in 2019. In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, he handled the social media of the party during the campaign.
5. Earlier this year, Akash Anand launched a 14-day ‘Sarvajan Hitay, Sarvajan Sukhay’ Sankalp Yatra. This is reportedly seen as the repositioning of the BSP’s strategy ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan and the crucial Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Published: 10 Dec 2023, 02:43 PM IST
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