Maya wants cash for bash

In this season of high-profile birthday bashes, Chief Minister Mayawati8217;s is the next big event. And her critics and rivals say she is ...

In this season of high-profile birthday bashes, Chief Minister Mayawati8217;s is the next big event. And her critics and rivals say she is not even waiting for the gifts to arrive.

In fact, she would prefer to get some hard cash and even issue a coupon for it. The graffiti on the city8217;s walls may be describing January 15 as 8220;Swabhiman Divas8221; but the BSP coupons produced by rivals are selling the party as 8220;Arthic Sahyog Divas8221;.

Party MLAs and ministers have been given these coupons and targets by the BSP office to collect money though officially no one is willing to confirm this.

But BSP state president K. K. Sachan had no such qualms and insisted that no one was being forced: 8216;8216;What8217;s wrong in celebrating CM8217;s birthday as a mega event; after all she was the only CM who did not resort to raising loans to pay salaries of government staff as her predecessors had been doing.8221;

The Maya-loyalists added that 8216;8216;ever since she took over as CM, the economy of the state had improved and all the movements launched by her had proved successful8221;.

If for the BSP it8217;s the Thanksgiving Day, the Samajwadi Party is proving to be the party-pooper by inviting the CBI to the bash. Asking Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to order a CBI probe, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said 8216;8216;I will quit as a MP if the charges are not proved8217;8217; even as his son, Akhilesh Yadav, MP, waved serial coupons with the CM8217;s signatures and an appeal for her 47th birthday.

8216;8216;Crores are being collected for the birthday and BSP MPs, ministers, MLAs, bureaucrats, district magistrates, RTOs, SSPs, tehsildars and SHOs have been given targets. Industrialists, traders and even farmers are being forced to cough up huge sums,8217;8217; Mulayam added, pegging the target at Rs 500 crore. He said his party was preparing a list of the big contributors.

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Meanwhile, a huge college ground near the CM8217;s official residence at 5 Kalidas Marg is being prepared for the event where the department of culture will organise special programmes to entertain the guests. Even Bollywood stars are expected to arrive.

The CM will host a lunch here while at night there will a dinner in New Delhi to which the Prime Minister and Dy PM L K Advani, among others, have been invited.

However, the icing on the cake for Mayawati will be the public inauguration of Ambedkar Park, recently completed at an estimated cost of Rs 125 crore.

Amidst so much hurly-burly, security has not been ignored. A car with a jammer communication facility has been added to her fleet. Close-circuit cameras have been installed at her office and her residence. The visitors at her residence and the office are being given passes with photographs taken by digital cameras.