Having just survived a crisis, UP Chief Minister Mayawati isn’t taking any more chance and has prepared an action plan to win over MLAs as and when needed.The CM Secretariat and the state Home Department officials have been working overtime to collect details on how MLAs ‘‘misused’’ funds from the Vidhyak Nidhi, got officials transferred through written requests to the CM and also how many cases have piled up against them. Having done that, Mayawati is armed with computerised sheets on who went wrong and when, only to use it whenever required to win support of MLAs.A senior bureaucrat, on condition of anonymity, says: ‘‘The message is loud and clear. Stay with the government or face the music as is evident from the arrests of Raja Bhaiyya, Dhananjay Singh on the one hand and the release of Akhilesh Singh, the Congress MLA who was facing NSA.’’Overnight, a change of heart in Puran Singh Bundela — the BJP MLA who was hobnobbing with the rebels — on whose FIR Raja Bhaiyya and Dhananjay Singh were arrested — was also allegedly part of Mayawati’s plan to keep errant legislators with the government. Bundela is involved with mining business in Lalitpur district and owes the government crore of rupees. He also has 12 cases of different nature pending against him.The ‘‘message’’ from the administration that the government may go tough in recovering the pending dues was impetus enough for Bundela to lodge an FIR against the two Independent MLAs.In fact, Mayawati has been keeping BJP legislators on their toes right from the beginning. During a joint meeting with BJP and BSP legislators at Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon’s residence, she pulled up BJP MLA Bharat Singh for showing discontent when actually he had been ‘‘obliged’’ with transfers of officials. Though the incident occurred a few months ago, it was indication enough that a lot of future-planning went into each of the CM’s moves.Criminal cases against a number of MLAs has also come as a blessing for the CM. The most fragile among the parties which propped up her government is said to be Rashtriya Lok Dal but seven of its 14 legislators have police cases against them. RLD legislator Babulal has 11 cases, Tejpal 9, Swami Omvesh (also a minister) 17 and Pratap Chaudhary 5.The 88-member BJP legislature party has 41 members with cases pending against them. So is the case with party rebels like Badshah Singh with 16 cases, Ghanshyam Shukla (also a minister) 11, Ajai Rai 8, Rajendra Singh 5 and Satish Mahana (Minister for State) 6.The Chief Minister has not even spared the BSP legislature group. Forty-six of the 99 BSP MLAs have cases against them, as per sources in the state Home Department. Prominent among them are Ram Bual Nishad with 16 pending cases, Uday Bhan with 15, Mohammed Shafiq 20, Amar Mani Tripathi (also a minister) 26 , Anis Ahmed (a minister) 10 and Madan Singh 9.‘‘She is armed with so much documentary evidence against the MLAs that they will have to think twice before parting company with her,’’ said the senior official.
