Through her nephews, Mayawati firms up family hold on BSP

When Mayawati’s political stardom was at its peak, she said no family member would be her successor. However, the introduction of Ishan Anand, her nephew, to party leaders, indicates that she is grooming her family to take on the role.

Ishan Anand is 26 and has studied law at the University of Westminster, UK. His elder brother, Akash, is the party’s national convenor, who after a brief hiatus brought on by fiery speeches is back in the saddle looking after the party’s preparations for the Delhi Assembly elections. Both are sons of Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar.

Mayawati’s brother, once a clerk at the Noida Development Authority, is now in the real estate and hotel business.

For now, Ishan is more of an understudy. When Mayawati introduced him to the party leaders, a day after her birthday, she only said that he was currently helping his father in business. For most of the press meeting, Ishan kept taking notes in a diary.

One senior party member speculated that Ishan could be groomed more keenly as Akash had, until now, not been able to make any mark on the party. Though the party is not considered to be a serious player in the Delhi elections, if it does not even get a respectable vote share, Mayawati could focus on pushing Ishan into the limelight.

Party watchers are also speculating on how the two brothers were placed in the photographs taken on the two days that Ishan made an appearance. On Mayawati’s birthday on January 15, both brothers appeared on one side of their aunt, with Akash standing closer to her. Two days later, the brothers flanked Mayawati on either side while Satish Chandra Mishra, the party’s national general secretary, stood next to Ishan.

People speculate that this is an indication of the growing importance that Mayawati will place on her nephews.