Lucknow:
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s move to sack her nephew and political heir from all party posts again brought a jibe from the Samajwadi Party, which mocked her asking why she is not helping the next generation move forward. “For the last few days, we have been seeing that Behenji is taking some strange decisions in her party,” said Ashutosh Verma, spokesman of the Samajwadi Party, which is at loggerheads with the BSP.
Summing up the situation, he said, “Akash Anand was made the national coordinator; then in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections, he was called immature and removed; after the elections, he was again given the command and today again, he has been removed”.
“If decisions change like this, then somewhere, questions are raised on leaders… questions are also raised on how strongly Behenji wants to fight (elections) or why she does not want to take the new generation forward,” he added, in a jibe at the BSP, which is currently struggling in Uttar Pradesh.
“Mayawati ji has now got stuck in her family issues…her whole family has got disturbed,” said state Congress chief Ajay Rai.
Akash Anand, Mayawati’s nephew who was once showcased as her political heir, has been removed from all party posts for the second time in a year. Mayawati has blamed factionalism. She had even removed Mr Anand’s father-in-law Ashok Siddharth, accusing him of splitting the party down the middle.
In a statement today, Mayawati said, “Being an honest and loyal disciple and successor of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, I have expelled Ashok Siddharth, who is also the father-in-law of Akash Anand, from the party in the interest of the party. He has done this heinous act of weakening the party by dividing it into two factions in the entire country, including Uttar Pradesh, which is absolutely intolerable, and all this was also seen in the wedding of his son.”
In May 2024, Mayawati had removed Akash Anand from all the important posts of the party, tagging him “immature”. But a month later, named him the party’s National Coordinator, making it clear that he is her political heir.
