In a sudden development, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, on Tuesday, May 7, announced her decision to remove her nephew Akash Anand as her successor and the national coordinator of the party until he was ‘politically mature’. The decision came on the day when voting was held for the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
Sharing that BSP, besides being a party, was also a movement for self-respect and self-esteem, Mayawati said that she and Kanshi Ram had dedicated their entire lives to the movement and prepared a new generation to give momentum to it. For this purpose, she said that Akash Anand was promoted as the national coordinator and declared her successor, “but in the larger interest of the party and the movement, he is being removed from both these important responsibilities until he attains full maturity,” she shared on X.
She said her brother and Akash's father, Anand Kumar, would continue to fulfil his responsibilities in the party.
“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,” she wrote.
Akash Anand was made national coordinator of the BSP in 2019 after Mayawati revamped the party following the fallout with the Samajwadi Party. He was named Mayawati’s successor in December last year.
While Mayawati did not disclose the reasons for removing Akash from the party’s key post and dropping him as successor, Akash was booked last month for violation of the Model Code of Conduct after he allegedly used objectionable language at an election rally in Sitapur against the BJP.
“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 said.
He also lambasted the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Citing the National Crime Records Bureau report that 16,000 kidnapping incidents had taken place in the state, he said that the government has failed to provide safety to women and children. He also called the BJP a “party of thieves” for taking Rs 16,000 crore through electoral bonds.