Nephew fills in for Mayawati with first political speech, slams Election Commission

AGRA/LUCKNOW: Calling the 48-hour ban on BSP supremo Mayawati unjustified, her nephew Akash Anand, in his first speech at a rally, appealed to voters to give a befitting reply to the Election Commission by ensuring a win of the grand opposition alliance in the polls.



Standing in for his aunt at the rally of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance at Kothi Meena Bazar ground here, the 24-year-old read out his speech like his aunt, even as he made attempts to enthuse the crowd by repeating his statements and pausing to allow the crowd to react. Like Mayawati, he started and ended his speech with the chant of ‘Jai Bhim’. Seeking support for alliance candidates, Akash said: “Today, you have come here in such large numbers on the appeal of my buaji. I am grateful to all of you. I have come before you for the first time with an appeal. Make alliance candidates win and this will be a befitting reply to the Election Commission.”

Akash has been accompanying Mayawati at public rallies and events since 2016, but this is for the first time that 24-year-old Aakash spoke at a rally. He was seated besides RLD chief Ajit Singh while BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra took the chair next to Akhilesh.
Akhilesh: What did BJP do for Lucknow?

Speaking on the occasion, Akhilesh said that if the alliance of three parties was ‘mahamilavati’ (adulterated), as being claimed by Modi and BJP, then what is NDA, which has more that 38 parties supporting it. “What should we name it?” he asked.

Yadav said he and Mayawati had done a lot for the city of ‘love’. “Lucknow Expressway was constructed to connect this city to Lucknow and similarly, Yamuna Expressway to Delhi. “What has the BJP government done for this city?” questioned Akhilesh, adding that they only knew how to create an atmosphere of hatred. They even dropped the name of the ‘monument of love’ from the UP tourism’s booklet. Manoj Soni and Guddu Pandit from the BSP are alliance candidate from

Agra

and

Fatehpur Sikri

respectively. RLD’s Kunwar Narendra Singh is contesting from

Mathura

. Sharma, who was also present in the rally, alleged that BJP was behind this ban as they were scared of the power of the alliance.