One nephew keeps being thrown out and taken back in. The other, who had barely got a start, is out too. And now Mayawati has opened the door of the Bahujan Samaj Party to her niece instead, as her succession plan continues to revolve around her brother Anand Kumar’s children.
The latest post, made on Saturday afternoon, did not refer to that turn of events as such. The niece was named as the alternative that’s permitted — conditions apply. Details on Deepika Anand are not readily available as she has so far been away from the succession rigmarole. Ashok Siddharth complied within a day, but Mayawati felt it was not fast enough, hence insincere . She also spoke about a post he had reshared on X. Plus, she was miffed at Akash for not resharing her post. She simply moved on.
In her latest X post on Saturday, the 70-year-old leader ruled out any position in the party for either of her nephews, Akash Anand and Ishan Anand, and said their children would be barred as well, while holding open the possibility that her niece, Deepika Anand, currently a law student who is in her early 20s, could be given responsibilities.
She said this decision is the final one. “Today is my final decision and pledge that none of [Anand Kumar’s] sons will be given an opportunity to engage in politics by holding any position, big or small, within the BSP,” she said, referring to her youngest brother and party vice-chief Anand Kumar. “If, while Anand Kumar remains with me, he needs another member to assist him, then in the current political situation, he can simply seek the help of his only daughter, Deepika Anand, who is currently studying law,” Mayawati said. “He can then, based on her honesty, loyalty, and efficiency, assign her his own responsibilities within the party as needed,” she further said in the post in Hindi. Deepika might not even be willing, and Mayawati has kept that as a caveat in her newest plan: Anand Kumar “may, with the party’s consensus, hand over this responsibility to another missionary worker from within the party’s Dalit community”. The family question goes beyond the nephews and escalated on September 9 when Mayawati said Ashok Siddharth, a former BSP Rajya Sabha MP who is Akash Anand’s father-in-law, has to “renounce” politics as the condition for Akash Anand to get back his job. “The process of ensuring participation of Gen Z in the party organisation up to about fifty percent has been going on for a long time,” Mayawati said, adding that the same criterion was now being applied to candidate selection for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab.
