Lucknownama

Electoral compulsion

Chief Minister Mayawati suspected a conspiracy to undermine the Constitution in Anna Hazare’s agitation,yet BSP MLA from Etawah (Sadar) Mahendra Singh Rajpoot attended a meeting organised by a local organisation to express solidarity with the campaign. The BSP is known for its organisational discipline but no action is likely against Rajpoot. Party sources attributed this to simple realpolitik: Rajpoot is one of those MLAs who have a good support at the ground level,and his constituency is located in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s home district.

Anna booster for RLD

Anna Hazare’s announcement that land acquisition may be one of the points on his future agenda has enthused Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh. “Ab to Annaji kisano ke liye andolan chalane wale hain,” he remarked at a press conference. RLD believes an agitation by Anna Hazare on the issue of land acquisition will help it. Since the agitation will obviously target the government,the RLD hopes that this will nullify whatever benefits the Congress may hope to reap from Rahul Gandhi’s forays in Bhatta-Parsaul,Aligarh and Tappal. All these areas fall in western UP,which Ajit Singh regards as his area of influence.

Reward for loyalty

By appointing septuagenarian Ram Naresh Yadav as Governor of Madhya Pradesh,the Congress has rewarded an old loyalist. Yadav comes from Azamgarh and,although he has been neither an MP nor an MLA for the past few years,he has remained in touch with the people there. He was very active when AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh visited Azamgarh to meet the families of youths who are in jail in terror cases. Congress leaders hope that his appointment to a constitutional office will send a positive message to eastern UP,particularly among the OBCs.

Defaulter? Who cares?

DGP Karamvir Singh’s name continues to figure among IPS officers who have not made details of their properties public. The Ministry of Home Affairs had fixed May 5 as the deadline. It had warned that defaulting officers would not be considered for promotion or empanelment for senior level posts in the Government of India. As an officer who is retiring on August 31,Karamvir Singh can afford to ignore it. But the MHA website will keep displaying his name among defaulting officers even after retirement. It has not pulled out the names of officers who have retired after May.

Too hot to handle

The state government is in a fix. The Centre has made it clear that it won’t release funds for NRHM unless it appoints a full-time mission director,but officials are refusing to join. The CBI is investigating the fraud in the Lucknow NRHM,while the CAG is conducting a statewide audit. For obvious reasons,no officer wants to be caught in a situation where he has to explain things which others did in the past. After the NRHM scandal broke out,the government had posted Ashish Kumar Goel,but he did not join. Mohammad Mustafa took up the assignment but,for some mysterious reason,the government removed him in four months. Then,Himanshu Kumar refused to take charge. Next,Sanjiv Kumar Mittal did not join. Now,the government has posted B L Meena. Will he join?