Mayawati getting nephew nightmares again

Akash Anand (30) returned with an MBA degree from London in 2017 and started accompanying his aunt (bua), Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, to political meetings. Fluent in both Hindi and English, he was making extempore speeches, cracking jokes and firing up crowds at political rallies. He wasn’t just another suit — he was the suit, shaking up a party filled with veterans who’d seen it all.

By 2019, he was the BSP’s national coordinator. By 2023, Mayawati had named him her political heir. In 2025, he has been cast away. Now deemed too big for his boots, his fall has been just as swift and dramatic as his meteoric rise.

In a speech he gave in Sitapur on 29 April 2024, he lashed out at the BJP and described it as “aatankvadiyon ki party (a party of terrorists)” and was hauled up by the Election Commission for using intemperate language and ‘promoting enmity.’

He had committed the cardinal sin, believed some in the BSP, of openly attacking the BJP. That was not the party line — Mayawati attacked the Congress and the Samajwadi Party while being relatively soft on the BJP. Akash was stripped of his post mid-campaign — only to be tossed back into the fray months later for state elections.

His reinstatement as national coordinator came months before the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections — a position that was taken away again on 2 March 2025. The very next day, he was expelled from the party. Was he paying the price for the party’s poor performance in the elections? In Haryana, the BSP did not win any of the 35 seats it contested and saw its vote share fall by 2 percentage points to 1.86 per cent.

In Delhi, none of its 68 candidates won even as the party’s vote share dipped to 0.57 per cent.

In Rajasthan, the party won just two of the 184 seats it contested and saw its vote share slide two percentage points to 1.81 per cent. (In 2018, the party had won six seats but all the winning MLAs subsequently jumped ship to join the Congress.)

In February 2025, he was relieved of his responsibilities in Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. On 2 March, Akash was conspicuously missing from the meeting in Lucknow where he was formally divested of his role as national coordinator (which was given to his father, Mayawati’s brother, Anand Kumar).

In her statement, Mayawati said, “Siddharth’s daughter is married to Akash. We’ll have to watch how much influence Siddharth exerts on his daughter after his expulsion and how much influence she exerts on Akash. It’s not appearing positive so far. In such a situation, Akash has been removed from all party responsibilities in the interest of the party and the movement. Siddharth is completely responsible for this and has damaged the party while ruining Akash’s career.”

Who is Siddharth?

Akash’s father-in-law Siddharth is a former bureaucrat turned BSP loyalist, who quit his government job in 2008 to join the BSP full-time, but was expelled in February 2025 for ‘factionalism’.

Rumour has it that Siddharth ‘forgot’ to invite senior leaders to his son’s wedding and allegedly nudged Akash to ‘take charge’ of the party. Enough to make Mayawati panic. By March, Akash was out too. Already a canny politician, his farewell note called Mayawati’s decision patthar ki lakeer (a line set in stone). Not one to let him have the last word, Behenji hit back, calling him “arrogant” and blaming his wife and in-laws for “poisoning his mind.”

Akash accepted her decision and bowed out. But not without adding that he would continue to work for the party with full devotion and fight for the rights of Dalits “till my last breath.”

“Some people from the rival party may think that my political career is over…” he posted on 3 March. “They should understand that the Bahujan movement is not a career but a fight for self-respect and self-esteem [for] crores of Dalits, oppressed, deprived and poor people.”

Post–riposte

Within hours of her nephew’s post came bua’s riposte: “On the contrary, the lengthy response given by Akash does not show remorse or political maturity, but … arrogance and selfishness.”

Only last month, she had declared on X, that “Bahujan-hith” (the interest of Bahujans) came before “rishtey-naate (personal ties)". Her true successor should, she said, be like her and her mentor Kanshi Ram — ever ready to dedicate their lives to strengthening the party and endure every pain in the process.

A section of party insiders believe the BJP has been tightening the screws on Mayawati. Her refusal to align with the Opposition against the BJP has frustrated many. Anand’s father-in-law, they say, was one such leader who advocated that BSP openly speak against the BJP’s anti-Dalit decisions.

This cohort apparently wanted the BSP to join the INDIA bloc and work with the Congress. Rahul Gandhi openly declared during his February visit to Rae Bareli that he had extended his hand to the BSP. Raashid Alvi, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Masood Ahmed, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Swami Prasad Maurya, Barkhu Ram Verma, Lalji Verma, Indrajeet Saroj and Veer Singh are among the prominent former BSP leaders who left the party.

Those in the know put it down to Mayawati’s authoritarian ways, her conspiracy theories about leaders out to grab her party and property, and her deep, personal insecurities.