Inspector Bachcha Yadav (played by Mukesh Tiwari) in Prakash Jha’s 2003 film Gangaajal was left drunk, confused and distressed about whether he was still part of the police force after SP Amit Kumar (played by Ajay Devgn) suspended him. For a brief period, BSP chief Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand seemed caught in a similar state of uncertainty. However, statements made on Thursday suggest that the 31-year-old may now have been firmly shown the exit door by the BSP, at least for the time being.
On September 3, Mayawati removed Akash Anand from his position as national coordinator but permitted him to continue as an ordinary party worker. On September 9, she suggested that his responsibilities could potentially be restored if his father-in-law, former Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Siddharth, completely withdrew from politics. Siddharth did so on Thursday morning, September 10. However, just hours later, Mayawati announced that Akash had been “fully relieved from the party”.
So why did Mayawati still refuse to revoke Akash Anand’s suspension? The BSP chief explained the reason herself: Akash did not repost her message on X asking his father-in-law to retire from politics.
“Akash Anand did not even repost the BSP chief’s post on X, though it was meant for his own good, whereas earlier he would repost her posts to demonstrate his loyalty,” Mayawati said in a detailed post on X.
Mayawati had expelled Siddharth, a former MLA and MLC, from the BSP on August 2, accusing him of indiscipline, taking an anti-party stance and failing to fulfil his responsibilities. Discipline and loyalty have long been central to Mayawati’s functioning, and she expected Akash to demonstrate both by reposting her message, even though it concerned his father-in-law.
Akash had only recently been brought back into the spotlight ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. He had earlier been expelled from the BSP in March 2025 but was later reinstated after apologising. Following his political relaunch, Akash addressed party workers in Hathras on August 10 and Jewar on August 25, before being stripped of his position again on September 3. His situation may well have reminded him of Bachcha Yadav’s uncertainty. But this time, it appears to be the end of the road for Akash Anand in the BSP — apparently over his failure to repost his aunt’s X post.
Mayawati had said that only Ashok Siddharth’s complete withdrawal from politics could allow Akash to “work freely” in the BSP. Siddharth complied, but Mayawati subsequently described his decision as coming too late and expelled Akash anyway.
Akash, 31, is Mayawati’s nephew and had previously been projected as her political successor as well as the BSP’s young national face. Siddharth, his father-in-law, is a veteran BSP leader who has served in both the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and the Rajya Sabha. Both men are now out of the party’s active picture at a critical moment.
The developments within the BSP are significant and go well beyond a family dispute. The party won only one of Uttar Pradesh’s 403 Assembly seats in 2022 and failed to win any of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, when its vote share dropped to 9.39%. In western Uttar Pradesh, Chandrashekhar Azad has emerged as a prominent young Dalit leader competing for the same political space. With the 2027 Assembly election approaching, Azad has increasingly emerged as a challenge for the BSP.
ASHOK SIDDHARTH ANNOUNCES POLITICAL SANYAS AFTER MAYAWATI’S WARNING
In his September 10 message on X addressed to Mayawati, Siddharth said her instructions mattered more to him than his relationships and family. Describing her as his “political guru” and elder sister, he credited her with helping an ordinary party worker reach the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha.
Siddharth rejected allegations that he was attempting to take control of the BSP or influence Akash in the wrong direction. He claimed he had not met Akash for several months, apart from a few occasions when their political programmes happened to overlap, and alleged that party rivals had plotted against him.
He also urged Mayawati not to connect his decision to retire from politics with Akash’s return to the party. “Akash Anand Ji is your nephew before he is my son-in-law,” Siddharth wrote, stressing that Mayawati alone had the authority to decide whether Akash should once again receive party responsibilities.
Nevertheless, Siddharth announced that he was immediately giving up his “political and social life”. He described the decision as a small sacrifice and said that even sacrificing his life for Mayawati would be an honour. He concluded his message by apologising for the delay.
Mayawati may have interpreted Akash’s decision not to repost her message as an indication that his loyalty and emotional attachment to his father-in-law were stronger than his commitment to the party.
MAYAWATI CALLS SIDDHARTH’S RETIREMENT TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
Mayawati acknowledged Siddharth’s decision to leave politics on Thursday morning but used the phrase “Better late than never” to indicate that the move had come after too much delay.
In an extensive post on X, she said that if Siddharth had taken the decision earlier, the BSP, the Bahujan movement and Akash would not have repeatedly found themselves in difficult situations. She alleged that Siddharth’s failure to announce his retirement immediately after her September 9 message showed that the “flaw and ambition” in his intentions had not disappeared.
Mayawati also took aim at Akash for failing to repost her September 9 message, despite the fact that it had potentially created a path for him to return to an active party role. She pointed out that Akash had previously reposted her messages to demonstrate his loyalty. His silence this time, she said, suggested that he was more attached to his father-in-law than to his own political future, the BSP and the Bahujan movement.
She questioned how Akash, whom she described as having a “double mind”, could effectively serve the party and subsequently declared that he had been “fully relieved from the party”.
Akash Anand’s political journey in the BSP has involved repeated promotions, demotions, expulsions and comebacks since he was appointed national coordinator in 2019. Mayawati declared him her political successor in December 2023, but removed him from both positions in May 2024. She reinstated him on June 23, before stripping him of his positions again on March 2, 2025, and expelling him from the party the following day.
Akash’s latest exit has now shifted attention to his younger brother, Ishan Anand, who was appointed chief sector in-charge only days earlier and given responsibility for supervising BSP activities outside Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. His appointment does not officially make him Akash’s replacement, but it has added another dimension to the BSP’s succession question as Mayawati attempts to prepare the struggling party for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh election.
For Akash Anand, his latest episode in the BSP may ultimately be remembered as the case of how failing to repost one message on X cost him his place in the party.
