Beyond the boundaries of Uttar Pradesh, the elephant fails to register its presence and its men refuse to toe the line.
Cross-voting by four out of the five Bihar BSP MLAs in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections on Thursday, once again, proves that the diktat of BSP president Mayawati works only within the boundaries of her own state.
The BSP had announced its decision to support Karnataka-based business, B.G. Uday, for the Rajya Sabha seat from Bihar but with four legislators cross-voting, Mr Uday ended up with just two votes. The BSP is now defending itself by saying that since it had not issued a whip, the legislators were free to vote wherever they wanted.
This, incidentally, is not the first time that BSP MLAs have played truant. Shortly after the Assembly polls in Rajasthan in 2008, all the six BSP legislators had decided to move into the Congress fold without even waiting for the party leadership to take a decision on the party’s posture in the state.
“It is clear that in state where the party is not in power; our legislators tend to get swayed by lucrative offers. The fear of reprimand or punitive action does not apply to them. The party is concerned over this trend and we will tighten our hold on our MLAs outside UP,” says a senior party functionary.
BSP MLAs agree on this issue. “In UP, even if we want, we dare not defy the party directive. If we do, all hell will break loose — all possible action, including false criminal cases against us and our families, is initiated to teach the errant MLA a lesson. Whenever a BSP MLA has defied the leadership, he has paid a heavy price for the same,” said a party MLA belonging to eastern UP.
Another legislator echoed similar sentiments and said that a sizeable section of party MLAs remain disgruntled in the party because there is no platform for them to air their grievances.
“Whenever the Mayawati government is on its way out of power, a large chunk of MLAs tend to break away. It happened in 1997 when Kalyan Singh formed government and then again in 2003 when Mulayam Singh Yadav came to power. However, whenever Ms Mayawati is firmly in the saddle, it works as a strong cohesive and keeps the flock together,” said the legislator.
Party strategists, however, now want to draw up a strategy to curb this practice by party MLAs. “Ms Mayawati cannot be present in every state and the party is broadening its base. We will have to devise a mechanism to ensure that the legislators remain disciplined,” said a senior party functionary.