Mayawati is ready to take her nephew Akash Anand back into the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), in a third U-turn on his political fate, and it’s again tied to his father-in-law. That would mean renouncing it altogether, not just retiring.
But this time her condition is extreme: the father-in-law, Ashok Siddharth, a former Rajya Sabha MP of the party, has to take “sanyas” from politics.
In a post on X on Wednesday, she said Akash Anand will be able to “work freely in the party” once Siddharth fulfils this condition, and then she would also consider restoring the responsibilities taken away from him. Akash Anand was the BSP’s chief national coordinator until Mayawati announced last week that she was withdrawing leadership responsibility from him as “he still needs to be more mature”.
This is the consensus in the party,” she added. “Only then will Akash Anand be able to work freely in the party, and only then will the party sympathetically consider restoring his responsibilities so that he can play an active role in the party. Akash Anand, Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar’s son and once named her political successor, has been elevated and removed from party responsibilities several times since 2024, with his father-in-law facing a similar fate. Siddharth was expelled altogether from the BSP in 2025 and later returned; as did Ashok Siddharth. Earlier reporting noted: Akash Anand was the BSP’s national convener until September 3, when Mayawati announced at an all-India meeting of party office-bearers that he would work as an ordinary party worker.
Mayawati said Siddharth had placed “personal and familial interests and ambitions” above the party’s mission, and that Akash Anand had to bear the consequences of this along with him. Recently, Mayawati said Akash Anand could continue only as a party worker and not as a leader. “In such a situation, keeping in mind the interests of the party and movement, as well as his own family and the future of his son-in-law Akash Anand, Ashok Siddharth still has the opportunity to renounce his political ambitions, rise above personal interests, and completely retire from politics,” Mayawati said in her post in Hindi. Mayawati said the party had given Siddharth several opportunities to “mend his ways”. “He never truly cared for Akash Anand or the BSP Movement in his personal interests,” she alleged. She told him he could now “set an example of greater sacrifice, penance and selflessness”. In her post, she said the Bahujan Movement is currently facing “tough challenges, especially regarding reservations and the like”. She said people from the Dalit community should not act out of personal or familial interest in a way that creates obstacles “for which history may not forgive them”. Earlier reporting noted: ‘Quit politics completely’: Mayawati’s message to Ashok Siddharth as Akash Anand awaits big BSP role ahead of 2027 UP polls Mayawati said Akash Anand, the BSP’s national coordinator, would continue to work in the party. (File Photo) Earlier reporting noted: LUCKNOW: BSP national president Mayawati said on Tuesday that Ashok Siddharth, the father-in-law of her nephew Akash Anand, should take complete “sanyas” from politics. Only then, she said, would it be appropriate for Akash Anand to work freely in the party again. She said it would not be appropriate to give him any major responsibility, adding that he still needed to become more “mature.”
