Days after removing her nephew Akash Anand from the key organisational post of chief national coordinator for the third time, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national president Mayawati on Monday appointed Akash’s younger brother Ishan Anand as the chief sector coordinator for states other than Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Mayawati announced the appointment at a meeting of party leaders and office bearers in the state capital.
The BSP’s organisational structure is divided into three sectors. Two sectors comprise other states while the third consists of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Ishan will attend meetings in these states and review organisational work, a BSP leader said. He will submit his report to his father Anand Kumar (Mayawati’s brother), who is the party’s national vice-president.
After the announcement, Akash Anand, who had earlier replaced ‘chief national coordinator’ with ‘party worker, BSP’ on his X handle, further amended his bio on the social media platform to ‘party supporter BSP.’ Ishan mentioned his new status, chief sector coordinator, on his X handle.
Ishan Anand has not tested the political waters so far. After completing his schooling from Noida, like his elder brother, he too went to the UK for higher studies, enrolling at the University of Westminster in London. Later, he returned to join the family business. He married Radhika Khanna, the daughter of a Noida businessman, in Haryana on April 24, 2025.
Ishan was seen at a party meeting in March 2025 after Mayawati expelled Akash Anand from the BSP and removed him from a key post for the second time. The BSP chief introduced Ishan to party leaders in a programme held on her birthday on January 15.
Though Mayawati has not entrusted Ishan with party work in election-bound Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, party leaders hope he will become active in both states soon. Mayawati hopes to woo young voters, particularly Gen-Z, by launching the young Ishan Anand during the election campaign.
During the Lok Sabha election campaign in May 2024, Mayawati removed Akash as national coordinator as well as her successor after an FIR was lodged against him in a hate speech case in Sitapur.
She reinstated him in August 2024 and tasked him with leading the party campaign in the Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi assembly elections.
Later on March 3, 2025, Mayawati unceremoniously removed Akash from the key post and expelled him from the party.
Just two months later, she again reinstated Akash by appointing him BSP’s national coordinator in May 2025 as she planned to woo young voters.
