This Week Uttar Pradesh: Assertive Akhilesh

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is finally trying to come out from under the shadow of his father and uncles

Assertive Akhilesh

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is finally trying to come out from under the shadow of his father and uncles. Asserting himself,he recently sacked Rajaram Pandey as khadi and village industries minister after he talked of making roads as smooth as the cheeks of Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixit. The minister has grumbled that he was not even asked to resign. Earlier,when Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh and Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyaa were removed,both were given the option of submitting their resignations. Akhilesh has also removed DGP A C Sharma,who had been chosen by Mulayam Singh Yadav,Akhileshs father. He has suspended a few other police officers,including a DSP who had beaten up an elderly woman at a protest against the rape and murder of a minor girl in Aligarh.

Mulayam in preparation

After predicting that the Lok Sabha elections may be held in November,Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav has set his party into election mode. He has started organising meetings of various groups. First came a meeting of most backward classes. This was followed by one of the partys minority cell,the first such meeting in two decades. These were followed by meetings of the partys district and city unit presidents,party legislators,frontal youth organisations,the womens wing,lawyers and last week Brahmins. On the cards is a meeting of ministers. He has used the meetings to urge cadres to work wholeheartedly and ensure the victory of the party so that it gets its own PM.

Brought back into BSP

Mayawati has reinducted one of the BSPs founder members,R K Choudhary,after 12 years. For the BSP,it was an urgent necessity as it had no leader of such high standing from the Pasi community,which is the second largest Dalit community in the state. Choudhary,besides being a Pasi leader,is also familiar with the ideology of the BSP. He had worked with the late Kanshiram,the BSP founder,who had appointed him BSP state coordinator. He is not a party-hopper either. After he was expelled from the BSP,Choudhary did not join any other party but instead floated his own,and nursed a political base in Mohanlalganj from where he won the assembly election twice and became a minister in the Mulayam Singh regime in 2003. Mayawati has now announced him as her Lok Sabha candidate for Mohanlalganj.

Lucknow kept waiting

In the three months since he took over as BJP president,Rajnath Singh has not visited Lucknow,capital of his home state. He was supposed to visit on February 5 but cancelled the programme because of inclement weather. He visited Kumbh in Allahabad the very next day. The Lucknow visit was rescheduled on February 23,but this time it was cancelled because of the death of 37 Kumbh pilgrims in a stampede at Allahabad railway station. In the meantime,he has visited Kanpur,Varanasi and his Lok Sabha seat of Ghaziabad,and is scheduled to attend a rally in Bareilly. The talk in the party is that he is keeping away from Lucknow on his astrologers advice.