Mayawati's soft-launch of another nephew stokes party cadres' imagination

Lucknow: A formal introduction of her 26-year-old nephew in a party meeting two days ago has set the rumour mills whirring that Mayawati may soon introduce Ishan Anand into politics to reinvigorate her flagging party.

On January 16, a day after her 69th birthday, the Bahujan Samaj Party chief introduced her second nephew, Ishan Anand, a law graduate from the University of Westminster, London, to the cadres at a party meeting.

Party members who attended the meeting said the introduction was simple but pregnant with possibilities.

Akash Anand, Ishan's elder brother, is already the party's national convener and was tasked with key party assignments like Haryana polls earlier and is helming the party's campaign for the Delhi polls now. Both Anand and Ishan are sons of Maya's brother Anand Kumar.

"During the introduction at the party forum, 'Behenji' simply said, this is Ishan. Currently, he is helping his father in his business," a party cadre told PTI.

"Akash bhaiya stood on the left of Behenji while Ishan bhaiya stood on to her right along with Satish Chandra Mishra ji," the person said, claiming that this was the first time her younger nephew was seen with the four-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister at a party meeting.

Uttar Pradesh BSP chief Vishwanath Pal said if at all Ishan is inducted into the party, it would not be discreet.

"If Ishan bhaiya has to join the party, his name will be announced with great fanfare and Behenji will give him some important responsibility in the party," he said.

At the meeting, as Mayawati raised questions on the law and order situation in UP, Ishan was seen noting down her instructions. "He kept noting everything in a diary," a party member recalled.

BSP's chief rival and the state's main opposition Samajwadi Party has been keeping watch on the developments and is not sold on the potential reinforcement.

"Mayawati first introduced her nephew Akash in politics but he couldn't do anything much. Now, she appears to be readying to introduce another of her nephews. But the youth of the state only considers our chief Akhilesh Yadav as their leader," SP spokesperson Deepak Ranjan said.

"As far as the 2027 assembly elections are concerned, there is no question of BSP returning to power in UP. Even Dalit voters, who were BSP's vote bank, are now looking to SP," he added.

A BSP leader, however, asserted that the younger man's introduction would do the party a world of good. "If Ishan joins active politics, it will have a positive impact on the voters in 2027 UP polls. Together with Akash, the two can make a difference," the person said.

The BSP has since 2014 witnessed a series of electoral setbacks. It failed to open its account in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls while it could win only one seat in the 2022 UP Assembly election.

In the recent bypolls, the BSP failed to win a single seat. The jolt forced Mayawati to declare that her party would not contest bypolls in UP in the future.

Dalit thinker and Lucknow University professor Prof Ravikant said Mayawati's chief worry is her Dalit vote bank, which has over the years become fragmented.

"Mayawati's biggest concern now is to save her traditional vote bank, especially Dalit-Jatav voters. In the last Lok Sabha elections, her vote bank got fragmented. She is trying to save this voter base," he said.

The academic said the leader faces another threat in Azad Samaj Party's Chandrashekhar Azad, which has emerged as another vociferous champion of Dalits.

"Young Dalit voters are now leaning towards Azad Samaj Party. Perhaps this is the reason why Mayawati has given the responsibility of number two in the party to her nephew Akash Anand," he said.

Prof Ravikant also questioned Mayawati's decision to choose family members over other eligible young cadres in the party.

"There are many Dalit youths in the party who want to come up, want to work for the party. They should also be given a chance," he said.