Mayawati
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Mayawati
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office May 13, 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Mulayam Singh Yadav |
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| In office May 3, 2002 – August 29, 2003 |
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| Preceded by | President's rule |
| Succeeded by | Mulayam Singh Yadav |
| In office March 21, 1997 – September 21, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | President's rule |
| Succeeded by | Kalyan Singh |
| In office June 3, 1995 – October 18, 1995 |
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| Preceded by | Mulayam Singh Yadav |
| Succeeded by | President's rule |
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| Born | January 15, 1956 New Delhi |
| Political party | Bahujan Samaj Party |
| Occupation | Politician |
Mayawati (Hindi: मायावती) (born January 15, 1956) is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She has been the Chief Minister during three other short tenures but her party holds the absolute majority in the state as of date. She is the highest income-tax payer among all politicians in India paying Rs. 26 crore for year 2007-08.[2]. Coming from a dalit family, Mayawati made her way to the seat of chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state of India. [3][4]
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[edit] Early life
Mayawati was born in Ghaziabad to Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Prabhu Das, her father worked as a clerk in the telecommunications department. She graduated from Kalindi College in Delhi and holds couple of bachelor degrees in Law and Education degrees. She worked as a teacher in Delhi (Inderpuri JJ Colony). In 1977, Kanshi Ram became very influential in her life resulting in her joining his core team when he founded the BSP in 1984. Shortly after, she changed her career path and entered politics full time.
[edit] Political career
In 1984, Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Buddhist and Dalits, and Mayawati was one of the key people in the new organization. In 2001, Kanshi Ram named her as his successor.
BSP was formed in April 1984, and fielded Mayawati for its first election campaign from the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in the Muzaffarnagar district in 1984, and then again for the Lok Sabha seats of Bijnor in 1985 and Haridwar in 1989.[5] Although they did not win, the electoral experience led to considerable groundwork over the next five years, (working with Mahsood Ahmed and other organizers), and in 1989, the party won 9% of the popular vote, and 13 seats in 1989, and 11 in 1991. Because the Dalits are widely-spread over the state, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati then adopted a policy of attracting other groups, which continues today.
Mayawati first won for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 from Bijnor. In 1995, while a member of the Rajya Sabha, she became a Chief Minister in a short-lived coalition government, and validated her position by winning from two constituencies in 1996. She was again Chief Minister for a short period in 1997, and then for a somewhat longer term in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2002 to 2003.
In 2003, during one of her tenures as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati was accused of corruption by the opposition, Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadi Party legislators presented a video cassette and a CD to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, which they claimed showed Mayawati asking her MLAs to hand over money from their annual constituency fund towards BSP's party fund.[6] Shortly thereafter, Mayawati got more than 140 cases filed against her bete noire and head of Samajwadi Party, Mulayam Singh Yadav, for alleged misuse of the Chief Minister's Discretionary Fund when he headed the government in 1995-96. She also got first information reports (FIRs) registered against other leaders of the Samajwadi Party.
In her tenures as Chief Minister, Mayawati has erected a number of monuments to Buddhist and Dalit heroes like Bhimrao Ambedkar and others also of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Gautam Buddha.[7]
[edit] 2007 U.P. Assembly Elections
Contrary to some poll predictions, BSP won a majority, the first such majority since 1991. Mayawati managed to attract support from Brahmins, Thakurs, Muslims and OBCs voted for the first time for a Dalit party, partly because BSP had offered seats to people from these communities. As usual, this was accompanied by a colourful slogan: Haathi nahin, Ganesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh Hain: The elephant (BSP Logo) is really the wise Ganesh, the trinity of gods rolled into one.
[edit] Chief Minister, 2007
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Kumari Mayawati was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time on 13 May 2007. She announced an agenda that focussed on providing social justice to weaker sections and providing employment instead of distributing money to the unemployed; her slogan is to make "Uttar Pradesh" ("Northen Province") into an "Uttam Pradesh" ("Excellent Province").
Her first action was to suspend two IAS officers for non-performance alleging that they failed to maintain the Ambedkar park in Lucknow: B.B. Singh, Vice-President (LDA), and S.K. Aggarwal (PWD Principal Sec.) and another lower rank officer. It is widely believed that these officers were close to the outgoing government of Mulayam Singh Yadav.[8] She has transferred around 100 police officers.[9]
According to her, she is continuing the process of clearing out corruption in the UP Police Department, whereas other parties claim that she is nurturing corruption by creating a team of government officials who operate under her personal control. The campaign is a major crackdown on corrupt police officers recruited during the previous Mulayam Singh Regime. So far 17,868 policemen have lost their jobs for irregularities in the recruitment process and 25 IPS officers were suspended for their involvement in corruption while recruiting the police constables.[10]
She has also opened case files related to land deals of the leading actor Amitabh Bachchan in Barabanki, who was close to the previous Samajwadi Party regime.
Keeping an eye on the votes of upper castes, she now talks about a policy for poverty-based reservations rather than caste-based reservations.[11]
[edit] 2009 parliamentary elections
Mayawati's BSP has not reached its expectation in 2009 general elections. BSP, which was expected to win more than 35 seats in Lok Sabha from the Uttar Pradesh state, but remained at 20 seats. BSP obtained the highest percentage (27.42%) of votes in UP for any one political party. BSP was at the 3rd position in terms of national polling percentage (6.17%).[12].
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Taj corridor case
Taj corridor case is an alleged scam where in 2002-2003, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati was charged with corruption. The Taj Corridor project was a project to upgrade tourist facilities near the Taj Mahal implemented during her tenure as Chief Minister. The BJP government at the Centre at that time gave the Environmental Clearance required for such project near Taj Mahal. However, later on BJP backed out and then started saying that the project is not cleared by the Environment Ministry and blamed Mayawati for starting construction work near the Taj Mahal.
The Supreme Court of India ordered a CBI enquiry into the matter, specifically to probe Mayawati's and the then Union Minster for Environment, Naseemuddin Siddiqui's involvement in the scam. Upon the conclusion of the investigation, the findings were reported to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh who thereafter refused to grant sanction for prosecution of the two under Section 197 Cr. P.C. This refusal was once again brought to the Supreme Court of India where the bench decided that rulings on such a sanction were out of its jurisdiction and it was the executive's (the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, here) discretion.[13]
[edit] Embezzlement
Mayawati has also been accused of ordering her BSP's MPs to contribute their discretion-funds and MPLADS funds to the party-fund illegally[14] In 2007-08 assessment year, Mayawati paid more income tax than industrialist and Forbes-listed Mukesh Ambani[15] and it is believed that these are misappropriated funds; she is currently under CBI scrutiny for her personal wealth[2].
[edit] Birthday gifts murder
Mayawati also came under heavy criticism from opposition in 2008, when a PWD engineer named M K Gupta was killed after he reportedly refused to pay money demanded by a BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari for Mayawati's birthday celebrations.[16]
[edit] Statues
Mayawati Kumari's public expenditure upon statues including 6 of herself, has drawn fire from UP citizens and the Indian public. The 'Untouchable and Unstoppable'view of Mayawati, explains why Mr Prajapati, the sculptor for the statues, is busy completing the statues of Mayawati and her political mentors. "In 2003, Kashi Ram asked that we put up statues in their lifetimes. We don't know what will happen after our demise," he said.
"Now Mayawati is building a statue that is 18ft high and will be placed on a pillar that is 100ft... She wants her memory to be immortalised." [17]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ UP CMs & their terms. Retrieved on March 30, 2007.
- ^ a b Mayawati, Shah Rukh among top taxpayers
- ^ "Mayawati in Newsweek's top woman achievers' list". http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mayawati-in--newsweeks-top-woman-achievers-list/50591-3.html.
- ^ "Mayawati is India's anti-Obama: Newsweek". http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4427506.cms.
- ^ "Profile of Mayawati, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh". Official UP Government Release. http://uphealth.up.nic.in/addressbook/cmsprofile.htm. Retrieved on 2007-05-13.
- ^ "Samajwadi Party claims to have on tape Mayawati demanding a 'cut'". Rediff.com. 2003-03-04. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/mar/03up1.htm. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
- ^ Mayavati is increasingly being seen as a threat to the traditional vote banks of the Congress particularly Dalits.She has emerged as the leader of the Third front in Indian Politics. Rajiv Ranjan Jha (25 May 2005). "Mayawati adds another 100 feet to her stature". Times of India.. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1120843.cms. Retrieved on 2007-05-13.
- ^ "Politics of vendetta". http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2009/stories/20030509004403200.htm.
- ^ Maya cracks whip IBNlive.com
- ^ "Uttar Pradesh police recruitment scam". News Track India. 2007-10-01. http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/1036. Retrieved on 2008-06-26.
- ^ Mayawati promises justice for all
- ^ http://eci.nic.in/results/frmPercentVotesPartyWiseChart.aspx
- ^ Coram: S.B. SINHA S.H. KAPADIA D.K. JAIN (10/10/2007). "M.C. Mehta Vs. Union of India & Ors". http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/chejudis.asp.
- ^ http://www.financialexpress.com/news/MPLAD-Funds-See-78-Utilisation/85804/
- ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Mayawati_SRK_top_taxpayers_list/articleshow/3319521.cms
- ^ Maya under fire for engineer killing, SP calls UP bandh
- ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/mayawati-kumari-untouchable-and-unstoppable-777695.html
[edit] External links
[edit] Timeline
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