Lucknow: BSP national convener and party national president Mayawati’s nephew, Akash Anand, will restart the party’s campaign for 2027 assembly elections in UP from Bulandshahr on Oct 28.In a month’s time, between Oct 28 and Nov 29, he will address public meetings in five districts, one each in Bulandshahr, Saharanpur (Nov 2), Ayodhya (Nov 20), Agra (Nov 22) and Kanpur Nagar (Nov 29).Mayawati herself put the details about his upcoming public meetings in UP on her X account, which was sufficiently indicative of her approving Akash’s current style of working in the party. She also sought public support for his meetings.Mayawati appreciated her nephew for “working hard to fulfill the responsibilities of the party and keeping it all above his relations and family.”She attributed the change in Akash’s attitude to his father-in-law Ashok Siddharth’s retirement from politics and the latter not exercising any kind of influence on him. She dispelled rumours about Ashok Siddharth also being taken back into the party like Akash Anand and said that it would never happen.Akash has been expelled thrice from the party by Mayawati for being “immature” in handling his responsibilities in the party. On Sunday, she publicly acknowledged his display of “wisdom and maturity” as the party’s national convener and said that people of ‘Bahujan Samaj’ had huge expectations from him.“The way Aakash has been working for the party and the movement proves that whatever unpleasant developments took place in the past were more because of Ashok Siddharth than Akash himself. This was the reason why Ashok Siddharth was advised to quit the party and retire from politics,” noted Mayawati.Her Sunday post was also about the bigger role that Akash would have in BSP in days to come. Mayawati shared that he would be the chief guest at the party’s seminar in Punjab on Nov 26, on the occasion of Constitution Day.On Dec 6, on the death anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, he will address a public meeting in Haridwar district in Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand and Punjab also have assembly elections due early next year.Her promotion and support of Akash on Sunday was a sharp contrast to her earlier stand on his election campaign in UP. When Akash launched his campaign from Sadabad assembly constituency in Hathras on Aug 10, Mayawati did not talk about it at all.Contrarily, she clarified that Akash was only announcing the names of candidates in his public meetings while the authority to select candidates was only hers.The party did not share any details of his second meeting at Jewar assembly constituency in Gautam Budh Nagar on Aug 25.In the all-India meeting of the party on Sept 3, Mayawati called him “immature” for the role of national convener and reduced him to being an ordinary worker of the party. On Sept 10, she removed him from the party.Things only looked up for him after he was taken back into BSP as its national convener on Oct 5.On Sunday, Mayawati also talked about her younger nephew, Ishan Anand, who, she said, will handle the party’s paperwork.
