With elections fast approaching, UP chief minister Mayawati is now determined to refurbish the image of her government and for this she is ready to put even senior leaders in the party and officers in the government on the chopping block.
The removal of senior IAS officer Vijay Shankar Pandey, following allegations of his involvement in the Hasan Ali case, on Saturday and the resignation of two senior ministers earlier this month, is merely the beginning of the chief minister’s campaign if party sources are to be believed.
“The chief minister is now in a belligerent mood is will not spare anyone who exceeds his brief. Two ministers were shown the door even though there was no trace of their involvement in the CMO murders and Pandey had to go even though the allegations have not yet been substantiated. The chief minister wants to improve the image of the government and the party and many more heads are likely to roll in the coming weeks,” said a senior official who attended an informal meeting convened by the chief minister over the weekend. According to highly placed sources, the chief minister has directed top police officials to unravel the conspiracy behind the CMO murders — both of which have caused major embarrassment to the Mayawati government in recent months. “She has asked us to catch the culprits and the conspirators, irrespective of their political stature and we are now working towards gathering evidences before we crack the case,” said a senior police official.
Ms Mayawati has already asked her divisional and zonal coordinators to submit reports about the ministers and legislators in their respective areas. “She has asked them to furnish details about corruption charges, if any, against the elected representatives, their behaviour with party cadres and the public perception about their image. It is on these issues that she will initiate changes in the BSP list of candidates for the next Assembly elections,” the functionary disclosed.
The chief minister, till now, has treated cases of crime and corruption by party leaders lightly but the list of offenders keeps growing longer. Whether it was the lynching of an engineer in Aurraiya by BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari, or involvement of two MLAs, Purshottam Naresh Dwiwedi and Yogendra Sagar in rape cases, the issues have only served to malign the image of the BSP government.
The next Assembly polls crucial are extremely crucial for the BSP which will strive to fight back the anti-incumbency factor and retain its numbers so that it can return to power. The BSP battle is not with the opposition that lies frittered and demoralised but with its own leaders and officers who have been detrimental to party interests.
“It is all these leaders and officers who will now be on Ms Mayawati’s hitlist,” the functionary added.