Maya will not send Shashank Shekhar

With its present strength of 80 MLAs,the BSP is in a position to send at least two candidates to the Rajya Sabha. While Mayawati herself is a likely candidate for one seat,Singh’s name was doing the rounds for the second seat.

Most MLAs are unhappy with Singh,who is reported to have run the state on Mayawati’s behalf. “One MLA openly asked Mayawati to look into the bureaucrat’s role in the party’s poll debacle at yesterday’s meeting. Mayawati pacified him by saying she always kept bureaucrats under tight control,” said a party worker.

BSP sources said the second nominee could be party coordinator Munkad Ali. “She appreciated Munkad’s performance in western UP. She also said she would send one person from the minority community,besides one from the SC,to the Rajya Sabha,” the source added.

Mayawati also held a separate meeting with party coordinators and discussed plans for strengthening the party’s base. “She indicated that she would include people from upper castes,particularly Brahmins,in the party’s main body. Earlier,upper castes people were accommodated in the party’s bhaichara committees. Now they may be included in the new teams of party coordinators,” said a party leader.

Mayawati told her party coordinators that she would hold meetings of senior functionaries deployed at the zone level every month.