The Hindu : Mayawati cashing in on BJP's weakness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 23, 2002

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Mayawati cashing in on BJP's weakness

By J.P. Shukla

LUCKNOW JULY 22. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, seems to have assiduously turned the weakness of the Bharatiya

Janata Party to her own advantage. The demoralised BJP leaders have been playing a game of oneupmanship among themselves and Ms. Mayawati has been taking one step after another to prove that it is only her will that matters in the affairs of governance. The BJP no doubt knows about the tactics of the Chief Minister but its leaders have no way to find fault with her.

The latest victim of Ms. Mayawati's strategy was the Minister for Urban Development, Lalji Tandon, who felt extremely humiliated at the manner in which she completely removed almost the entire team of officers running the civil and police administration here. The officers, including the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police with all their important subordinates, have now been sent to other districts. The team was considered to be a special choice of Mr. Tandon who was supposed to be responsible for nursing the constituency of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Chief Minister never talked to Mr. Tandon before taking the drastic step.

What justified Ms. Mayawati's steps was the continuously deteriorating law and order situation in Lucknow. While there was increased public outrage against the district police headed by the SSP, B.B. Bakshi, Mr. Tandon provided all protection to his trusted police officer. Instead of discussing the matter with Mr. Tandon, the Chief Minister, talked to Mr. Vajpayee directly and completely overhauled the administration. Mr. Tandon came to know about the developments when the transfer orders had already been executed.None of his colleagues has come forward to sympathise with Mr. Tandon.

Since the formation of the BSP-BJP Government he had been behaving with a sense of undue self-importance. And, that was not without reason. He had strongly supported the idea of coalition between the BJP and the BSP when other leaders such as the former Chief Minister, Rajnath Singh, and the former U.P. BJP president, Kalraj Mishra, were opposing the move. After the Government was formed he alone was functioning as a link between the BJP and the BSP in administrative matters. His pride has naturally been hurt by the action of the Chief Minister.

Rajnath Singh, who continues to be the leader of the BJP legislature group, has maintained a calculated distance from the affairs of the government. He seldom tried to interact with the Chief Minister but disapproved of the steps of Ms. Mayawati that had reversed some of the decisions taken by him as Chief Minister. Several utterances of Ms. Mayawati were interpreted as direct criticism of Mr. Singh but he did not join issue with her.

Ms. Mayawati earlier adroitly exposed yet another BJP Minister, Om Prakash Singh, who had pleaded with her to reverse the policy of reservation within reservation as implemented during the Chief Ministership of Rajnath Singh. The exposure had left speechless Mr. Om Prakash Singh and other leaders of the BJP who thought it was wrong on her part to annul the policy of the previous Government. The transfer of the Director General of Police, R.K. Pandit, is as an attempt to target the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Murli Manohar Joshi. The DGP was considered to be a favourite officer of Mr. Joshi.

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Mayawati cashing in on BJP's weakness