The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has declared her nephew Akash Anand as her political heir just months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The party has decided to fight the polls on its own, maintaining “complete distance” from the ruling National Democratic Alliance and the opposition INDIA bloc.
"Akash (Anand) has been declared the uttaradhikari (heir) by Mayawati ji," Udayveer Singh, the BSP's Shahjahanpur district unit chief told reporters earlier in the day.
Singh said Anand has been given the responsibility to strengthen the party organisation where it is weak all over the country except in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Though a BSP’s official statement on Sunday didn’t make any mention on Anand’s appointment, Singh said Mayawati had announced the decision during an all-India meeting of the party in Lucknow.
Who is Akash Anand?
An MBA graduate from London, Anand is the son of Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar. He entered politics in 2017 at the age of 22.
In 2019, he addressed his first rally as he shared dais with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh in Agra when the Election Commission had imposed a brief campaign ban on Mayawati.
All three parties were part of the Mahagathbandhan, an anti-BJP and anti-Congress bloc formed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. However, as the alliance failed to yield dividends for the BSP, Maywati walked out of the bloc.
In the same year, Anand was made BSP’s national coordinator.
Earlier this year, he launched a 14-day 'Sarvajan Hitay, Sarvajan Sukhay' Sankalp Yatra’ as reports claimed Mayawati was grooming the young leader ahead of the Rajasthan assembly polls and next year’s parliament elections.
He was later made the BSP’s in-charge for the Rajasthan elections in which the party managed to win only two seats.
On X, Anand describes himself as "A young supporter of Baba Saheb's vision".