'Still under influence': What led to Akash Anand's expulsion from Mayawati's BSP

LUCKNOW: A day after removing her nephew Akash Anand from all key posts in the party, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday expelled him from the party "in the interest and movement" of the party.
Mayawati said Akash's response to her action against him on Sunday was "selfish, arrogant and non-missionary".
On Sunday, Mayawati relieved Akash of all responsibilities on the grounds that he was under the continuous influence of his father-in-law Ashok Siddharth.
"He (Akash) should have felt remorse and dealt with it with maturity, but the lengthy reaction that he posted (on X) indicates the influence his father-in-law had on him rather than his political maturity and him being sorry," said Mayawati in a post in Hindi on X.
"In the interest of the self-respect and self-esteem of the movement of the most revered Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and following the tradition of discipline of Manaywar Shri Kanshiram Ji, Shri Akash Anand, like his father-in-law, is expelled from the party in the interest of the party and the movement," she said.
Responding to his expulsion, Akash said every decision of "Adarniya Behen Ji" is cast in stone for him and that he will respect and abide by it. Calling Mayawati's decision as "an emotional one" for him, he posted that "It is a big challenge and a long and tough battle ahead".
Addressing his ‘opponents', he said, "Some people in the opposition group think that my political career is over. They should understand that the Bahujan movement is not a career but a fight to ensure self-respect for crores of Dalits and deprived people. I will fight for my community till the last breath like a true worker of the Bahujan mission and movement."
Mayawati had anointed Akash as he successor in the BSP in Dec 2023. However, she sacked him from all party posts in the middle of 2024 Lok Sabha elections in May and then reinstated in June.
Akash had been working actively in BSP since 2017, after returning from London with an MBA degree.
Mayawati had entrusted him with drawing youth to the party to counter the influence of another growing Dalit leader and Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad, though Akash made little headway in this.
He campaigned for elections in many states, including UP, but failed to turnaround the party's fortunes whose graph has been declining in every state after 2022.
"What could have weighed him down is his effort to run a system parallel to the party's central leadership and keeping his own team to build on his image in the media," said sources. His political career, so far, has been groomed by his father-in-law, Ashok Siddharth, a former Rajya Sabha MP who was associated with BAMCEF before Kanshi Ram formed BSP in 1984.
Mayawati had expelled Ashok Siddharth from the party on Feb 12 on charges of stoking factionalism in the party.