No Successor, No Compromise: Mayawati doubles down on her authority, declaring she won’t name an heir while she’s alive. What’s next for the BSP?
BY PC Bureau
In a party where the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing, BSP chief Mayawati removed her nephew Akash Anand from all party posts on Sunday, declaring she will not name her successor while she is alive.
Acting like a true regional satrap who never allows any parallel power center to grow in their parties, Mayawati suddenly realized that “the party is supreme and relations can come later,” forgetting that this was the second time she had elevated Akash Anand in the party, sidelining other senior leaders. Mayawati had sacked Akash Anand last year only to reinstate him later and appoint him her political successor.
Ironically, while claiming the party came first and relationships later, Mayawati replaced the 30-year-old with two national coordinators—her brother and Akash’s father Anand Kumar and senior party leader Ramji Gautam.
A BSP release stated that Akash Anand has been removed from all party posts, raising questions about his political future.
बसपा की राष्ट्रीय कार्यकारिणी की बैठक जारी !
पूरे देश से कार्यकर्ता पदाधिकारी उपस्थित #mayawati #bsp #nationalchaupal pic.twitter.com/2EOF7zRXMs— National Chaupal (@NationalChaupal) March 2, 2025
Mayawati held Akash Anand’s father-in-law Ashok Siddharth, whom she expelled from the BSP last month on charges of factionalism and anti-party activities, responsible for the situation, according to a party statement.
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The key decisions were taken at a grand BSP meeting in Lucknow, chaired by Mayawati and attended by party leaders from across the country. The meeting reviewed the strategy of the BSP, which has been struggling in Uttar Pradesh, which it ruled in the past, and elsewhere.
Siddharth divided the BSP into two groups across the country and tried to weaken it. He also ruined the political career of Akash Anand, she said.
She reiterated that she will not announce her successor while she is alive. “The party and the movement are supreme, and relations like brother, sister, and their children come later,” she added.
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Appreciating Anand Kumar, who is also the BSP’s national vice-president, she said that he always worked with devotion for the party. “Be it paperwork, income tax, court issues, all are handled by Anand Kumar, who quit his government job. He also looked after (BSP founder) Kanshi Ram when he was ill,” she said. Kumar has decided to marry his children into non-political families so that no one tries to damage the party like Siddharth did, she said.
The meeting was held to strengthen the BSP at all levels, expand its base across all sections of society, and address organizational shortcomings, the statement said.
During the meeting, Mayawati underlined the need to counter rising inflation, poverty, unemployment, and backwardness, alleging that these issues were being ignored by the government. She also criticized the budgets of both the central and Uttar Pradesh governments, calling them “unrealistic” and detached from ground realities.
“Government policies have failed to improve the lives of millions of poor, laborers, Dalits, and backward communities,” she said. “India continues to be a country of the poor despite being called a rich nation.”
