Akash Anand’s clout in BSP re-established

Senior BSP leaders Gaya Charan Dinkar and Raj Kumar Gautam confirmed that in the meeting it was decided that Akash Anand would continue as the national president of the party. Along with the byelection on 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, he would play lead role in the party campaign in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu and Kashimir, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national coordinator Akash Anand is back in the reckoning in the party after he was removed from the key post of party national coordinator as well as her political successor by party chief Mayawati during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Akash Anand has already launched the party campaign in Haryana, addressing public meetings in Sirsa and Hissar. (HT FILE)

The cut-outs of Akash were installed on the road leading to BSP state unit office where the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the BSP and the delegates from across the country had assembled to elect Mayawati as national president on Tuesday. It was a clear indication that his clout in the party had been established after Mayawati reinstated her nephew on the post of national coordinator and political successor in June.

Senior BSP leaders Gaya Charan Dinkar and Raj Kumar Gautam confirmed that in the meeting it was decided that Akash Anand would continue as the national president of the party. Along with the byelection on 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, he would play lead role in the party campaign in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu and Kashimir, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.

Akash Anand has already launched the party campaign in Haryana, addressing public meetings in Sirsa and Hissar. The BSP is contesting the assembly election in alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). The BSP has started finalizing candidates for the assembly byelection in Uttar Pradesh . Once the Election Commission of India announces the schedule of the assembly byelection in UP, the rallies of Akash Anand would be organized in all the 10 constituencies, Dinkar said.

Akash Anand arrived in the central executive committee meeting along with his father Anand Kumar who is the national vice president of the party and Satish Chandra Mishra who is the national general secretary of the party. He was seated on the left side of the dais from where Mayawati addressed the party leaders.

Mayawati had appointed Akash Anand as the national coordinator in June 2019. Later in December last year she named Akash as her political successor in a key national level meeting of the party leaders and office-bearers held at party’s state unit office.

During the Lok Sabha election campaign, she removed Akash from the post of party national coordinator as well as her successor after an FIR in a hate speech case was lodged against him in Sitapur.

Mayawati had stated that along with promoting other people in the party, she declared Akash Anand as the national coordinator and her successor, but in the larger interest of the party and the movement, he was being removed from both these important responsibilities until he attained full maturity.

Later, under the pressure of the party cadre she rollled back her decision and reinstated her Akash Anand on the key posts.