As the EC barred BSP chief Mayawati from campaigning for 48 hours, her 24-year-old nephew Akash Anand on Tuesday, 16 April, addressed his first political rally, urging the people to vote for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Occupying one of the four seats on the dais with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, RLD president Ajit Singh and BSP general secretary SC Misra at the Koti Mina Bazar ground, Akash Anand was the first one to address the joint rally.
"People in such large numbers have come here on the appeal of my aunt for which I am thankful... My seniors are sitting on the dais but I am appearing before you for the first time and want to make an appeal... will you all listen to me," he said reading from a written text.
He appealed to the people to vote for the candidates fielded by the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance in Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Mathura Lok Sabha seats, introducing them to the crowd.
Seeking their support, he said the victory of the alliance candidates will be a "proper reply" to the Election Commission, ending the brief address with the BSP's usual slogan of 'jai Bhim... jai Bharat".
Akash Anand, the son of Mayawati's brother Anand, began appearing in public with her recently.
On 15 January, he was seen standing behind the BSP chief when she met Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on her birthday and was also present on the dais at the joint SP-BSP-RLD rally in Deoband on 7 April.
He has also been included in the list of BSP's star campaigners.
The EC on Monday imposed a nation-wide ban on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Mayawati from campaigning for 72 and 48 hours respectively from Tuesday for their "provocative" communal remarks.
While Mayawati was issued the notice for her speech in Deoband, where she appealed to Muslims to not vote for the Congress, Adityanath was served the notice for his "Ali" and "Bajrang Bali" remarks while addressing a rally in Meerut.
He claimed that the BSP chief was only apprising the people about Adityanath's attempts to divide the voters by using the Ali-Bajrang Bali formulation.
In his address, Misra referred to Akash Anand as his nephew and went on to attack the state chief minister for the ban on Mayawati's campaigning.
"It was because of this that the party supremo had to apprise the electorate about the BJP designs of dividing the society," Misra pointed out.
"By taking the help of the Election Commission, a ban has been imposed on the campaigning of our leader Mayawati by the government when everyone knows that it is totally wrong an unconstitutional," Misra claimed.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)