Akash Anand takes centre stage in Delhi Assembly polls

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party national coordinator Akash Anand will lead the party's campaign alongside party supremo Mayawati in the Delhi Assembly polls. In the list of 40-star campaigners released by the BSP on Tuesday, Akash, who is also Mayawati's nephew, found his name listed after the party chief. However, the party's national vice president and Mayawati's brother, Anand Kumar, and general secretary SC Mishra did not feature in the list of star campaigners for Delhi. Akash has already launched his campaign in the national capital, and his maiden speech in East Delhi's Kondli constituency on Jan 5 grabbed headlines for likening AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal's poll promises to 'Draupadi's sari.' He addressed his second public meeting in the Kirari assembly constituency. Mayawati appointed him as one of the "supervisors and in-charge" for the Delhi Assembly elections. "He lives in Delhi and is already a national-level leader of the party, which makes his role in Delhi prominent," said a senior party leader in the Delhi unit of BSP. This is also the first election in Delhi where he has a prominent role within the party. The Delhi unit plans to hold his public meetings in each of the 70 assembly segments. Delhi is where BSP has not won any seats since the 2008 assembly elections. In the Haryana Assembly elections held in Oct last year, Akash Anand actively participated in the campaign. BSP contested in alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana but failed to win any seats and also lost vote share compared to the previous assembly election. In the subsequent assembly elections in Nov, in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, as well as the bypolls for eight assembly seats in UP, Akash Anand did not campaign.