Mayawati declares nephew as her political heir

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday declared her nephew Akash Anand as her political successor, a party office-bearer said.

During an all-India meeting of the BSP in Lucknow, she also asked party leaders and workers to strengthen the organisation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, according to an official statement.

It, however, did not have any mention of Anand being declared her successor.

"Akash has been declared the 'uttaradhikari' by Mayawati ji," Udayveer Singh, the BSP's Shahjahanpur district unit chief, told reporters.

"He has been given the responsibility to strengthen the party organisation where it is weak all over the country, except in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand," Singh said.

He said Mayawati announced the decision during the all-India meeting of the BSP in Lucknow, which was attended by party leaders from across the country.

"She said he (Anand) will be her political heir after her," Singh said.

Confirming the development related to Anand, who is the party's national coordinator at present, BSP MLC Bhim Rao Ambedkar said, "We have got a youth leader in Akash Anand. In states where the party organisation is weak, Anand will be strengthening it."

The BSP's mission will continue, he said.

On his bio on X, Anand describes himself as 'a young supporter of Baba Saheb's vision' and according to BSP MLC Ambedkar, he is 27-year-old.

"He (Anand) has been associated with the BSP since 2017. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he had addressed a rally in Agra," Ambedkar said.

Anand has done his MBA from London, BSP MLA Uma Shankar Singh said. He also added that Mayawati has announced that Anand would be her political successor

Asked about announcement, BSP Uttar Pradesh chief Vishwanath Pal said, "Pura Bahujan samaj khush hai (the entire Bahujan community is happy)."

According to the BSP statement, Mayawati called upon party workers to increase the BSP's support base for the Lok Sabha elections to liberate the poor, backward and deprived sections from the exploitative system of 'vote hamara, raj tumhara (our vote, your rule)'.

Mayawati gave detailed guidelines to senior office-bearers of various states regarding preparations for the general elections.

"As an Ambedkarite party, the BSP's effort is to develop the political power of the Bahujan samaj by connecting various sections of the Bahujan community on the basis of mutual brotherhood. The objective is to acquire the master key of power," she said.

She called upon party workers to strengthen the organisation with 'double effort' to properly face opposition parties.

These parties, Mayawati said, mostly survive in politics through money power, attractive promises and deceitful claims instead of policy and principles for the public and national interest.

Speaking on the recent assembly elections in four states, Mayawati said despite multi-cornered contests, the result was completely one-sided, and this is a matter for discussion.

'Whether the next Lok Sabha elections will also be held on similar pseudo-slogans and election campaign,' she wondered and asked if the people suffering from poverty, inflation and unemployment will keep watching everything helplessly or will some democratic solution be found.

The efforts of opposition parties to remain in election discussions and media headlines in any manner are not appropriate to ensure free and fair elections, the BSP chief said.

'The result of this is that despite an anti-government wave, the election results are not according to people's expectations,' she said, according to the statement.

Efforts will be made in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls to influence the electoral atmosphere by giving it a casteist and communal tone to divert people's attention from inflation, poverty, unemployment and backwardness, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

'The question is that if the public remains ignorant even after understanding their problems, will the fate of their families be able to change?' she asked.

Reiterating her decision not to join any electoral alliance, Mayawati noted her 'bitter' prior experience and said siding with any bloc will be bad for the Bahujan movement.