Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday removed her nephew Akash Anand from the post of chief national coordinator, saying he needs more time to gain political “maturity” before being “entrusted with major responsibilities”.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati with her nephew Akash Anand (ANI file photo)
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Addressing a meeting of the party’s national committee at the BSP’s state unit office in Lucknow, Mayawati said she had allowed Anand to continue working within the party.
“I have permitted Akash Anand to work within the party but believe he requires further maturity. 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 conciliation, bribery, punishment, and division—to undermine it,” she said.
BSP supremo Mayawati chairs a meeting with senior party office-bearers and state-level leaders at the BSP state office in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India on Thursday, September 3, 2026.
The decision marks a setback for Anand, whom Mayawati had elevated to a key position in August 2025. She had appointed him as the BSP’s national convenor, effectively placing him second in the party hierarchy and signalling his emergence as her political successor.
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At the time, Mayawati had tasked Anand with helping revive the BSP ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and rebuilding the party’s connect with young voters.
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At the time, Mayawati had tasked Anand with helping revive the BSP ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and rebuilding the party’s connect with young voters.
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The move was particularly significant as the BSP had been facing a challenge from the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), led by Chandrashekhar Azad, which had been attracting sections of the younger electorate.
As reported by HT earlier, BSP leaders and workers had urged the party leadership to send Akash Anand on a statewide campaign to strengthen the organisation and mobilise its cadre. Under the proposed campaign, Anand was to address public meetings across all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, with a particular focus on mobilising young voters and party workers.
Rajesh Kumar Singh is Assistant Editor, Hindustan Times, at the political bureau in Lucknow. An Alumnus of Ramjas College, Delhi and the University of Delhi, he has covered politics in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for three decades and has written extensively on Dalit and OBC politics. He travelled across Uttar Pradesh to cover the panchayat, assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Along with writing on development issues, governance and public policy has done crime reporting, including Maoist activities in Bihar as well as activities of gangsters in East Uttar Pradesh, Jungle Party gang active on UP- Bihar border, dacoit gangs in Bundelkhand region and Sand Mafia active in various districts of UP. Has done investigations and reporting exposing multi-crore NRHM scam in UP, Nutrition scam, Medicine supply scam, irregularities in the flood management projects, weapon smuggling and human trafficking on Indo- Nepal border. He highlighted the deaths of children due to encephalitis in the districts of East Uttar Pradesh; the central and state government took cognisance of the report to launch schemes to check deaths and improve the facilities in the health centres and hospitals. He also reported on the social issues in East Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand- migration, farming crisis, water crisis, plight of the deprived communities- Musahar, Vantongiyas, Sahariya and Kol communities. He covers state government departments. He also travels to write human-interest stories and in-depth stories from the ground in the Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, and Rohilkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh.
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Home/India News/Mayawati removes nephew from key BSP post, believes he 'requires further maturity'
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