Delhi Confidential: Gold crown for BSP’s Akash Anand; Congress wings spar over Ramlila Maidan crowd numbers

Welcome to Delhi Confidential, your inside track to the power corridors of the capital. Today: From BSP national convener Akash Anand being gifted a gold crown in Uttar Pradesh to internal rivalry brewing between the Seva Dal and the Indian Youth Congress.

1. 01

   Crown Prince?

   WHEN BSP national convener Akash Anand reached Saharanpur on Monday to announce the name of party leader Naresh Kumar Saini as the BSP candidate from Nakur Assembly seat for the 2027 Assembly elections, Saini welcomed the senior leader with a gold crown. A senior BSP leader said the gold crown was offered on behalf of the Saini community. Notably, when BSP supremo and Anand’s aunt Mayawati was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in the late 2000s, she had drawn criticism from Opposition parties for accepting gold crowns as gifts from party workers.

2. 02

   Crowd Contest

   THE RAMLILA Maidan rally of the INDIA bloc on Sunday seems to have set off some “healthy competition” among frontal organisations of the Congress. Sources said senior leaders of the Seva Dal have been claiming within the party circles that the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) could mobilise only around 3,000 workers for the rally. The IYC, on the other hand, has asserted that it managed to bring more than 10,000 workers from across the country to the Capital. This competition will soon be addressed by the senior leadership of the party, said the sources.