Newslaundry’s Another Election Show is traversing the constituencies that are on the cusp of phase one polling. In this episode, we sit down with Akash Anand, the national convenor of Bahujan Samaj Party and its chief Mayawati’s nephew.    

Anand gave his first election speech in Agra ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll – 48 hours after Mayawati was banned from campaigning. The 29-year-old is now being sought as the four-time former Chief Minister’s successor. Although not contesting the polls, he is second after Mayawati in the list of “star campaigners” of the party.

The BSP’s political heir began his election campaigning from Nagina, where the party won in the previous polls despite the Modi wave of 2019. This time, it has fielded Surendra Pal Singh in the constituency against Azad Samaj Party’s Chandrashekhar Azad. Also in the fray are SP’s Manoj Kumar and BJP’s Om Kumar.  

In this conversation with Atul Chaurasia, Anand spoke about the challenges facing the BSP, decline in its vote bank, politics of Chandrashekhar Azad, allegations of being the BJP's B-team, and the INDIA alliance.

Watch.