BSP No. 2 Akash Anand: ‘If we keep attacking PM, BJP, there will be retaliation… So, if it hurts our people, Behenji won’t do it’

BSP national coordinator Akash Anand, 28, is party supremo Mayawati’s nephew andpolitical successor. Besides Mayawati, Anand is the BSP’s main campaigner in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states. In a free-wheeling interview with The Indian Express, Anand speaks on a wide range of issues including the state of affairs in the BSP, his plans and the party’s roadmap firmed up by Mayawati, whom he calls “Behenji” in public and “Bua Maa” at home. Excerpts:

After completing you graduation abroad, what inspired you to join politics?

Behenji always said nobody from our family should join politics. After graduation, I did a couple of finance courses, came back, ran my business for two-three years. It (my joining politics) was not something that we had planned. It is just that my father (Anand Kumar) had been supporting Behenji for a long time. And she had tried a couple of more people, who could take up the party’s reins. She is a strict follower of Manyavar sahib (BSP founder Kanshi Ram)’s policy that nobody from the family should come and take over the party. It’s not a dynastic party. So, I feel that when she tried a couple of more people, who did not rise to the occasion, then senior members of her circle advised that if she can bring in someone from the family as the custodian that will at least give some sort of stability to the party for the future. So it was a surprise for us too.

In your rally speeches sometimes, you suddenly show aggression. What makes you angry?

Aggression is not meant to be personal. The people and the (Dalit) community we are representing, when injustice happens to them and when we speak on their issues, it automatically raises my voice and I get angry. For example, it makes me