Bureaucratic weathercock signals Mayawati victory?

Lucknow: Bureaucrats, apparently, make the best weathercocks as far as politics is concerned. If this holds true, there is good news for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in these elections.

While psephologists must be still racking their brains about the results in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, a large section of the bureaucracy has started making a beeline for the BSP president Mayawati.

A party functionary at the BSP state headquarters, disclosed, “We have already started receiving calls from top IAS and IPS officers who want to convey their best wishes to Behenji (Mayawati). Some have even sent bouquets for her while others are seeking appointments. However, the party president is busy campaigning and had not responded to the calls though we do submit a list of callers to her every evening”.

According to sources, some top officers have even visited the BSP president’s family in Delhi to ‘convey our wishes’.

One such bureaucrat admitted, on condition of anonymity, that he had met her brother in Delhi. “I have worked under Ms Mayawati and since I was in Delhi recently, I met her brother for a courtesy call”, he said.

When asked, he admitted that there were clear indications that the BSP is on a comeback trail. “The BSP may or may not get a clear majority but there is no doubt that it will merge as a single largest party”.

Sources claim that a senior official, known for his proximity to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, has started building bridges with BSP leaders and is also knocking on the doors of BJP leaders in Delhi.

“This officer has the distinction of holding top positions in BJP and BSP regimes and is now aiming for a good posting if either of the parties come to power”, a source said.

The biggest proof of the bureaucratic weathercock turning towards the BSP is the fact that officials have initiated the repair work on memorials built by Ms Mayawati during her previous regimes.

Since the past five years, the maintenance of memorials had been completely neglected. At the Ambedkar memorial, stones have come off, a number of tiles have cracked and the washrooms are in a deplorable state.

A senior official of the Lucknow Development Authority, when contacted, said, “This is a routine maintenance work which had been neglected due to our pre-occupation with other projects but now we are taking up the renovation and repair work”.

It is common knowledge that each time Ms Mayawati is on the verge of forming government, she makes a visit to the dalit memorials even before taking oath and a number of heads roll if she finds the maintenance level unsatisfactory.