MAYAWATI
Mayawathi is the another powerful character in Indian politics. She is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party. She had been the chief minister of Uttarpradesh for four times. Recently, she came into the news for the comments about Varun Gandhi’s ‘hate speech’. She commented that his actions were unpardonable and warned that anyone doing similar acts would get the same treatment in her state. She also blamed Maneka Gandhi by saying that she should have brought up her son better.
BIOGRAPHY
Mayawati was born in Delhi as the daughter of Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Her original name is Chandawati Devi. She belongs to the Dalit community. She was well educated and holds multiple degrees including Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Education degrees. She also worked as a teacher in Delhi for several years. Before her entry into politics, she was tried to become a IAS officer. However, getting inspiration from the politician Kanshi Ram, she turned into politics and joined Kanshi Ram’s party BSP in 1984. Now she is full time politician throughout her life. In 1984, she was one of the famous people in BSP, and she was the first election candidate for the party in 1984 elections. She was also a candidate for the party in 1985 and 1985 elections. She did not win in any of these elections, but the electoral experience gives confidence to her to work for the party. She first won for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 from Bijnor. In 1995, she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition government. Becoming the chief minister, she was the first Dalit woman to hold that position in India. She was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997 and also the Chief minister from 2002 to 2003 in alliance with BJP. In the third chief minister period, she had to face immorality by her main opponent Samajwadi Party. They presented a video cassette and a CD which showed Mayawati asking her MLAs to hand over money from their annual constituency fund towards BSP’s party fund. Mayawati filed 140 cases filed against Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav for his misuse of the Chief Minister’s Discretionary Fund when he headed the government in 1995-96.In 1997 elections, her party BSP won a majority, and she became chief minister of Uttar paradesh. To attract upper class people, she allotted more seats to Brahmins and Muslims in this election. Her agenda focuses on social justice and to provide employment. Her first action was to clear the corruption in the UP Police Department. For this purpose, she transferred and suspended many police officers and IPS officers.It is widely believed that these officers were close to the outgoing government of Mulayam Singh Yadav. She also filed a case against the famous actor Amitabh Bachchan related to landing deals in Barabanki. She is the powerful woman and BSP won all victories under her control. She is always hated upper class and its people and this hate always echoed in her speeches. In this coming election, she is again the powerful candidate of BSP and hope that this powerful woman will win in this election.
CONTROVERSIES
She faced many Controversies as a chief minister. She faced Controversies in the case of Taj Corridor project. It was a project to upgrade tourist facilities near the Taj Mahal. The BJP government at the Centre stated that project is not cleared by the Environment Ministry and blamed Mayawati for starting construction work near the Taj Mahal. She has also been accused of ordering her BSP’s MPs to contribute their discretion-funds and MPLAD funds to the party-fund illegally. In 2007-08, she was the highest income-tax payer, and it is believed that these are misappropriated funds, and now she is currently under CBI scrutiny for her wealth. Every year on her birthday her party members collect the money from businessmen and people in positions of influence. In 2008, she faced another criticism when a PWD engineer was killed, who refused to pay money demanded by a BSP MLA for Mayawati’s birthday celebrations.
