Mayawati Bars Two Nephews From BSP, Leaves Door Open for Niece Deepika

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has shut the door on her two nephews holding any position in the party, while leaving open a possible role for her niece, in the latest turn of a succession question that has centred on her brother Anand Kumar's children.

In a post on X on Saturday, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said neither Akash Anand nor Ishan Anand would be given any responsibility in the BSP, big or small, and that the bar would extend to their children as well. She described the decision as final.

Akash Anand, 31, was once seen as her political successor but was stripped of his responsibilities at a national office-bearers' meeting in Lucknow on September 3, where Mayawati said he needed greater maturity. It was the third time he had been removed from a party role. Ishan Anand, who is in his twenties, had received a party designation less than a week before that meeting; that assignment now stands effectively withdrawn under the blanket bar.

The family dispute widened on September 9 when Mayawati said Ashok Siddharth, a former BSP Rajya Sabha member and Akash Anand's father-in-law, would have to renounce politics before Akash could be reinstated. Siddharth complied within a day, but Mayawati judged the response too slow and therefore insincere, also citing a post he had reshared on X and Akash's failure to share her post. Saturday's statement did not revisit that episode.

Instead, Mayawati named her niece as the permitted alternative. She said Anand Kumar, her youngest brother and the party's vice-chief, could seek help from his only daughter, Deepika Anand, a law student in her early twenties, and assign her his responsibilities based on her honesty, loyalty and efficiency. She added a caveat: if Deepika is unwilling, Anand Kumar may, with the party's consensus, hand the responsibility to another dedicated worker from the Dalit community.

Explaining why Anand Kumar remains in the party, Mayawati said that had she not been a woman she would not have kept any siblings close, and that she had been compelled to retain her youngest brother for her safety and for assistance in party work. She said she now faces difficulties as his children have grown and married, but would not let the party come to harm. She invoked BSP founder Kanshi Ram's opposition to nepotism.

Alongside the succession decision, Mayawati made a generational pitch ahead of assembly elections due early next year. She said the party has long been working to ensure about 50% participation for Gen Z in its organisation, and that the same criterion is now being applied to candidate selection in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab. She cited past BSP investments in schools, colleges, universities, hostels, training centres and parks as work aimed at the basic needs of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

She also said there would be no further reversal on the nephews, stating that they are not being considered for readmission and dismissing social media claims to the contrary as fake news.