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New Delhi: Seen as someone who may succeed Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati as the party’s leader, her nephew Akash Anand’s public role signals a shift in the party’s strategy ahead of assembly elections in five states, which are scheduled to be conducted later this year. Mayawati, who has kept the reins of the party in her hands, now seems to be passing on the baton to him by handing over the responsibility to Akash. It is said that she is slowly preparing her second line leadership.
If political experts are to be believed, after several failures in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls, Mayawati started promoting her nephew Akash Anand in politics and gave him important positions in the party. He has been given election responsibilities in all four poll-bound states. Along with this, the party, which has distanced itself from agitations, demonstrations and padyatras, is now taking up padyatras to launch Akash properly.
As far as Rajasthan is concerned, the party had launched its 3000 km Sankalp yatra from Dholpur on August 17. Officially the BSP’s national coordinator, Akash will address the yatra at different points as it travels across 100 Assembly constituencies in the next couple of weeks. The constituencies include the six seats that the party won in 2018 — all of its MLAs later joined the Congress — and nine seats where its candidates finished runners-up. The yatra, which began from Dholpur, will conclude in Jaipur on August 29, The Indian Express reported.
A senior BSP leader said that ‘Behan Ji’ has given a big responsibility to Akash, in which there is a lot of challenge but there will be a lot to learn as well. “He is implementing his aunt’s social engineering formula. Youths will join him.”
Akash Anand, the son of Mayawati’s younger brother Anand Kumar, has a MBA degree from a leading college in London. Mayawati had launched Akash at a rally in Saharanpur in 2017 after losing the UP assembly elections. He was made the party’s national coordinator in May 2019, when Mayawati rejigged the party’s organization after the Lok Sabha elections. It was last year when he was given to handle the responsibility single-handedly. Earlier, the party had two national coordinators.
Talking to IANS, Political analyst Prasun Pandey said that elections in four states are enough for Akash Anand to prove himself. However, he hasn’t faced any major conflicts yet. Still, Mayawati has launched him well.
It will be a big challenge for him to select loyal and winnable candidates in Rajasthan. The BSP used to have six MLAs at one point of time, but now they have joined the Congress. Similar will be the case in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where it will be a challenge for the BSP to stop the decline in its vote share and to save its cadre.
And not just Rajasthan. Akash is also playing a crucial role for the BSP in the other poll-bound states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. In June, Mayawati deployed him and Ramji Gautam, the central coordinator for these states and a Rajya Sabha MP, to prepare and launch the part’s election campaign on issues concerning Dalits, religious minorities, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and tribals.
It is to be noted that the BSP under Mayawati’s leadership has largely avoided any kind of yatras, including her four terms in power. The last time it hit the streets was in July 2016 in Lucknow when it demanded the arrest of BJP leader Dayashankar Singh over his allegedly objectionable remarks about the BSP chief.
At the time, the party’s national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui led the protests. Siddiqui is now in Congress while Singh is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
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