<p>Lucknow: Ending suspense over her party's future leadership, BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday declared party's national coordinator and her nephew Akash Anand as her political heir.</p><p>According to BSP leaders, Mayawati made the announcement at a meeting of the party office bearers here, which was more or less along expected lines. Almost all important office bearers of the BSP were present at the meeting presided by Mayawati.</p><p>The leaders, after the meeting, told reporters that Anand would ''for now'' look after the party's affairs in the country barring Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Mayawati would remain in-charge of these two states.</p><p>''<em>Behanji</em> (Mayawati) <em>ne Akash Anand ji ko apna uttaradhikari banane ki ghoshna ki hai</em>'' (Mayawati has declared that Akash Anand will be her political heir), BSP's Saharanpur district unit president Udaiveer Singh told reporters. There has been no official announcement in this regard by the BSP so far.</p>.BJP picks Vishnu Deo Sai, a prominent tribal leader, as Chhattisgarh CM .<p>Anand, who was the son of Mayawati's younger brother Anand Kumar, was inducted into active politics by the BSP supremo at a rally at Saharanpur in 2017. She had, since then, dropped hints to the BSP leaders that Anand could be given key responsibilities in the party in the future.</p><p>Akash was later included in the list of star campaigners of the BSP in the 2019 LS polls.</p><p>Sources said that Akash Anand has been entrusted with the task of strengthening the party organisation throughout the country except the two states of UP and Uttarakhand, ahead of he next year's Lok Sabha polls. Anand was also quite active in the recently concluded assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.</p><p>Mayawati's decision to pass on the mantle to her nephew comes at a time when the BSP is going through difficult times, and has found itself reduced to a fringe player, managing to win only one seat in the 403-member assembly after the UP polls last year.</p><p>BSP, which had won 19 seats in the 2017 assembly polls, also saw its vote percentage declining sharply from around 21 per cent in the previous polls to 12 per cent this time around, indicating a massive erosion in her support base in the state. Political analysts say that a section of the 'Jatavs' may have deserted Mayawati and supported the BJP. </p><p>Mayawati, who through her social engineering formula that brought the 'Brahmins-Dalits-Muslims' together, had managed to win 206 seats in the 2007 assembly polls in the state to form the government, saw her electoral fortunes nose diving in subsequent assembly elections.</p><p>The BSP's vote share has also witnessed gradual decline over the past few years. It had secured a little over 30 per cent votes in 2007, when it had formed the government in the state. It went down to less than 26 per cent in 2012 and further declined to around 22 per cent in 2017</p><p>Senior leaders like Ram Achal Rajbhar, former UP BSP president, Swami Prasad Maurya and Lalji Verma, a one time close confidante of Mayawati, also deserted her on the eve of the 2022 assembly poll in the state.</p>
<p>Lucknow: Ending suspense over her party's future leadership, BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday declared party's national coordinator and her nephew Akash Anand as her political heir.</p><p>According to BSP leaders, Mayawati made the announcement at a meeting of the party office bearers here, which was more or less along expected lines. Almost all important office bearers of the BSP were present at the meeting presided by Mayawati.</p><p>The leaders, after the meeting, told reporters that Anand would ''for now'' look after the party's affairs in the country barring Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Mayawati would remain in-charge of these two states.</p><p>''<em>Behanji</em> (Mayawati) <em>ne Akash Anand ji ko apna uttaradhikari banane ki ghoshna ki hai</em>'' (Mayawati has declared that Akash Anand will be her political heir), BSP's Saharanpur district unit president Udaiveer Singh told reporters. There has been no official announcement in this regard by the BSP so far.</p>.BJP picks Vishnu Deo Sai, a prominent tribal leader, as Chhattisgarh CM .<p>Anand, who was the son of Mayawati's younger brother Anand Kumar, was inducted into active politics by the BSP supremo at a rally at Saharanpur in 2017. She had, since then, dropped hints to the BSP leaders that Anand could be given key responsibilities in the party in the future.</p><p>Akash was later included in the list of star campaigners of the BSP in the 2019 LS polls.</p><p>Sources said that Akash Anand has been entrusted with the task of strengthening the party organisation throughout the country except the two states of UP and Uttarakhand, ahead of he next year's Lok Sabha polls. Anand was also quite active in the recently concluded assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.</p><p>Mayawati's decision to pass on the mantle to her nephew comes at a time when the BSP is going through difficult times, and has found itself reduced to a fringe player, managing to win only one seat in the 403-member assembly after the UP polls last year.</p><p>BSP, which had won 19 seats in the 2017 assembly polls, also saw its vote percentage declining sharply from around 21 per cent in the previous polls to 12 per cent this time around, indicating a massive erosion in her support base in the state. Political analysts say that a section of the 'Jatavs' may have deserted Mayawati and supported the BJP. </p><p>Mayawati, who through her social engineering formula that brought the 'Brahmins-Dalits-Muslims' together, had managed to win 206 seats in the 2007 assembly polls in the state to form the government, saw her electoral fortunes nose diving in subsequent assembly elections.</p><p>The BSP's vote share has also witnessed gradual decline over the past few years. It had secured a little over 30 per cent votes in 2007, when it had formed the government in the state. It went down to less than 26 per cent in 2012 and further declined to around 22 per cent in 2017</p><p>Senior leaders like Ram Achal Rajbhar, former UP BSP president, Swami Prasad Maurya and Lalji Verma, a one time close confidante of Mayawati, also deserted her on the eve of the 2022 assembly poll in the state.</p>