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Journalism of Courage
Akhilesh Das takes pride in talking about his 18 years in the Rajya Sabha and having been MoS for steel in UPA-I; he has also been mayor of Lucknow and held many posts in the Congress for over two decades. Yet, he adds, “Politics is not my profession. It is my hobby.”
He has friends across parties and been a member of two; he quit the BSP Monday. This has been followed by an exchange of bribery allegations with party chief Mayawati, who has alleged he had offered the party Rs 100 crore for a renomination to the Rajya Sabha. He has countered that it is Mayawati who takes Rs 50 lakh for a ticket to a reserved assembly constituency and Rs 1 crore for that to a general one.
“I am feeling relieved,” he tells The Indian Express. He will take a break from his “hobby”. “This week, I will go to Peru and once I return. I will sit with supporters and friends before taking a decision on joining any party.”
Son of former UP chief minister Banarasi Das, Akhilesh, 53, is a businessman with stakes in real estate, educational institutions and media besides an interest in sports and politics. A former badminton player, he is chairman of Badminton Association of India and a regular at tournaments. His educational institutions include management, engineering, medical and even a university named after his father in Lucknow and other cities. He has stakes in a Hindi and an Urdu newspapers published from Lucknow.
His Rajya Sabha profile describes his profession as “educationist, business and publisher”. “Yes, I am a businessman. I do business, so what is wrong in it?” This was in reference to Mayawati’s remark that he was too involved in his business.
He has friends in the Samajwadi Party too. A BSP leader said it was Mulayam Singh Yadav who helped him become the Congress’s mayor in Lucknow in 1993. Nominated by the Congress to the Rajya Sabha in 1996, he was made the minister of state in 2006. Dropped in 2008, he quit the Congress attacking a “coterie around Rahul Gandhi”. Now, he says the resignation letter was drafted at Mayawati’s home and at her behest.
Mayawati inducted him at a rally in Lucknow and named him the party’s national general secretary. Tasked to woo his Vaishya community, he became Akhilesh Das Gupta. He tells The Indian Express, though, that he has never practised the politics of any one community.
In 2008, the party fielded him from Lucknow, where he lost, and sent him to the Rajya Sabha. His relations with the BSP soured since 2012, when the party fell out of power. At one stage, he praised the new CMO’s complaint redress mechanism. At a badminton championship last winter, Akhilesh Yadav accompanied him at a felicitation for players.
He gradually became less visible at BSP functions and was kept out of meetings of MPs held by Mayawati.
BSP and Money
Rs 87.63 cr
Income declared by BSP in 2012-13 but it said it did not receive any contributions above Rs 20,000 (which would require naming the donor).
Rs 50 lakh, 1 crore
Akhilesh’s allegation about what Maya charges for tickets, depending on whether the seat is reserved or general.
Precedents
In 2013, BSP expelled Ram Lakhan Pas after he was named Rae Bareli candidate; he said he was denied the ticket because he didn’t bribe BSP leaders. In 2009, BSP MLAs in Rajasthan who joined the Congress accused BSP leaders of taking bribes for tickets.
