Weeks after the party failed to win a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati Sunday reinstated her nephew Akash Anand as both her political heir and the party’s national coordinator.
This decision was taken at a meeting held in Lucknow to review the party’s poor performance in the 2024 elections, the BSP’s national general secretary Mevalal Gautam confirmed. All national office-bearers and leaders of the party from all states including Anand were said to be present.
Significantly, this comes after the BSP chief Mayawati has removed his nephew Akash Anand earlier in May — as BSP’s National Coordinator and her successor, while terming him immature.
Taking to social media platform X, Mayawati wrote, “I declared Akash Anand as the National Coordinator of BSP and my successor, but in the larger interest of the party and the movement, he is being separated from both these important responsibilities until he attains full maturity”.
He was removed from the post after being booked by the Sitapur police in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly promoting hatred and enmity, among other charges under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Representation of the People Act.. The charges followed an election rally in which he was heard calling the BJP government “gaddaron ki sarkar” (a government of traitors).
Significantly, in the 2024 polls held, the BSP, which contested alone this time, could not win a single seat as compared to its 2019 Lok Sabha election performance, where Mayawati formed an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav and won ten seats. In terms of voting percentage, the party played fairly poorly.
Congress contested only 17 seats in UP, won six seats, and got 9.46 percent of the votes. BSP contested on all 80 seats, did not win a single seat, and the party got only 9.19 percent of the votes. The BSP fielded candidates in 424 Lok Sabha seats across the country, including 79 in UP, and none of them won.
