Mayawati’s political successor Akash connects with people

Lucknow : Taking centre stage after being declared as her political successor by BSP president Mayawati, Akash Anand reached out to people on Thursday, asking them to give a missed call on a phone number to get directly connected to him. In a post on X, Anand, the national coordinator of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), said: “To join this mission, give a missed call on 9911278181 and connect with me directly.”

The post also carried the slogan -- “Mere sath chale, BSP se judey (Walk along with me, join the BSP)”. Mayawati last month announced that her nephew, Anand, would be her political successor. At an all-India meeting of the BSP in Lucknow, she asked the party leaders and workers to strengthen the organisation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, though the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister did not mention Anand being declared as her successor.

However, BSP’s Shahjahanpur district unit chief Udayveer Singh had confirmed while talking to reporters that “Anand has been declared as the ‘uttaradhikari’ (successor) by Mayawatiji”at the meeting. In the post on X, Anand said: “To fight for our rights, to struggle for social change, to build an egalitarian society in the country, we need to be organised, and it will start with you. To join this mission, give a missed call and connect with me directly.”

He also uploaded a more-than-two-minute-long video clip along with his post on the microblogging platform, in which he is heard saying, “In the interest of the society and to protect the Constitution framed by Baba Saheb (Ambedkar), we will not allow the country’s democracy to become the property of two parties at any cost. Being the third-largest national party in the country, the Bahujan Samaj Party will not make any compromise to protect the Constitution and democracy.”

“We will fight and stand strong to protect the democratic rights given to us by the Constitution. Friends, I want to remind you that our respected leader, Shri Kashiramji, had taught us a very good way for this political fight. But to use it, all of us have to remain united,” Anand said.