Will make nephew join BSP movement: Maya

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, January 17

BSP national president Mayawati on Thursday declared that she would now actively associate her nephew Akash Anand with the BSP movement, teaching him the ropes of the business of politics. At the same time, she claimed that her party was completely clean of dynastic politics.

Speaking to a news channel, Mayawati hit out at a section of the media which she described as “anti- Dalit” for focusing on her brother Anand Kumar’s son Akash presence at her programmes in recent days. Referring to media reports about the nephew reportedly sporting branded shoes on her birthday, which cost approximately Rs75,000, Mayawati hit back saying that during her regime as part of anti-Dalit conspiracy, “misleading news about her sandals had also become the topic of media headlines”.

“Similarly, now the media is targeting my nephew’s footwear quoting its price as if they had bought it for him,” said Mayawati. According to her, this reflects the nervousness of the BJP with the BSP-SP alliance in UP coming together and threatening the chances of their return to power.

She alleged the saffron party was using the anti-Dalit media to indulge in such cheap and narrow caste-based stunts. “I am the disciple of Kashi Ram ji and in his characteristic style, I would directly respond to such tactics. For this, I am determined to provide Akash the opportunity to become part of the BSP movement and learn from it even if the anti-Dalit media is pained by it,” said Mayawati.

Akash, an MBA from London, was first seen accompanying his aunt when she visited Shabbirpur in Saharanpur after the violence in May 2017. He has been spotted on the dais during her political rallies in Gujarat and other places in recent months.

But what caught the media attention was his constant presence during several high-profile events—the joint press conference of Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday, his standing next to Mayawati when RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav called on her, during the press conference on her birthday and later when Akhilesh Yadav came to wish her.

On May 26, 2018, during the national executive she not only removed Akash’s father Anand from the party post but also amended the BSP constitution to debar close relatives of party president from holding organisational posts.