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Akash Anand’s roller-coaster ride continues, Mayawati removes him from key BSP post again
While the BSP chief claimed the step was taken as she believed he required further maturity and introduced his younger brother Ishan Anand at a party meeting in Lucknow on Thursday, party insiders claimed a family feud and infighting in the organisation were behind the latest episode in the internal politics of the party, which has been losing successive assembly and Lok Sabha elections amid a shrinking vote share.
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The roller-coaster ride of Akash Anand, 31, in the Bahujan Samaj Party continued as the party’s national president Mayawati, his aunt, removed him from the key post of chief national coordinator on Thursday. This is the third time in over two years that he has faced the political axe in a stint marked by frequent ‘ousted-brought back-ousted again’ chapters.
While the BSP chief claimed the step was taken as she believed he required further maturity and introduced his younger brother Ishan Anand at a party meeting in Lucknow on Thursday, party insiders claimed a family feud and infighting in the organisation were behind the latest episode in the internal politics of the party, which has been losing successive assembly and Lok Sabha elections amid a shrinking vote share.
Addressing a meeting of the party’s all India committee at the state unit office in Lucknow, Mayawati said she had permitted Akash Anand to work within the party but believed he required further maturity. He will continue to serve the party as a common worker, she said. Accordingly, Akash has replaced ‘chief national coordinator’ with ‘party worker, BSP’ on his X handle.
“It would be inappropriate to entrust him with major party responsibilities at this stage. Time is needed to ensure the party is not harmed in elections by opponents employing various tactics—such as , bribery, force, and division—to undermine it,” she said.
Earlier, during the Lok Sabha election campaign in May 2024, Mayawati removed Akash as national coordinator as well as her successor after an FIR was lodged against him in a hate speech case in Sitapur.
Mayawati reinstated Akash to key posts in August 2024 and tasked him with leading the party campaign in the Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi assembly elections.
Later on March 3, 2025, Mayawati unceremoniously removed Akash from key posts and expelled him from the party, elevating three senior leaders—Ramji Gautam, Randhir Singh Beniwal and Raja Ram—to the national coordinator’s post.
Just two months later, she again reinstated Akash by appointing him BSP’s national coordinator in May 2025 as she planned to woo young voters.
Akash was tasked with countering the increasing influence of Azad Samaj Party (ASP) chief Chandrashekar Aazad, the Nagina MP, on the Dalit community as the BSP launched the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly election campaign with two rallies by Akash at Sadabad in Hathras and Dankaur in Gautam Buddha Nagar on August 10 and 25 respectively.
Mayawati had been grooming Akash Anand, her brother Anand Kumar’s son, as her political successor since 2017 and first appointed him as national coordinator in June 2019. In December 2023, she named him as her political heir.
The latest step against Akash comes a month after Mayawati expelled his father-in-law Ashok Siddharth, a senior party leader and former Rajya Sabha MP, on the charge of indulging in anti-party activities on August 2. Akash Anand had married Pragya, Ashok Siddharth’s daughter, in March 2023.
Announcing Siddharth’s expulsion, Mayawati had said he would not be taken back into the party under any circumstances in the future. She also expelled national coordinator Randhir Singh Beniwal who was in-charge of party affairs in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on the charge of anti-party activities at the time.
Mayawati, who won a clear five-year mandate to rule Uttar Pradesh in 2007, has been out of power since 2012.
Despite electoral setbacks, she has maintained an iron grip on the party, making it clear that she will continue to hold the reins despite a growing demand among a section of the party cadre to promote young leadership.
At Thursday’s meeting, she told party leaders she will finalise the candidates for upcoming assembly elections, draw the campaign strategy and monitor fund-raising.
A BSP leader said those who defy her orders are shown the door.
Mayawati has been the Uttar Pradesh chief minister four times – in 1995, 1997, 2002-03 and 2007-12.
In the 2007 UP assembly election, the BSP polled 30.43% votes and bagged 206 seats to form its only majority government.
In the 2012 assembly election, the BSP lost power and polled 25.95% votes, winning 80 seats. In the 2017 assembly election, the BSP polled 22.23% votes and won 19 seats. In the 2022 assembly election, its vote share dipped to 12.88% and the BSP won only one seat.
The BSP’s lone lawmaker in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly died in August. The party has no seats in Parliament.
The BSP failed to open its account in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as it secured 19.77% of the vote share.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BSP polled 19.42% votes and won 10 seats when it was in alliance with the SP. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BSP polled 9.39% votes and drew a blank once again.
