DNA
NEW DELHI, Dec 27: There will be no birthday cake or candles for Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati when she turns 53 on January 15, 2009.
After one of her party's legislators, Shekhar Tiwari, was implicated in the murder of state public works department executive engineer MK Gupta last week, Mayawati has cancelled the lavish birthday celebrations for which she has earned notoriety.
The decision comes in the wake of allegations that Gupta was killed for refusing to raise money through his PWD post for Mayawati’s birthday bash. The chief minister has denied the accusation.
Mayawati has now gone into fire-fighting mode. On Friday, she slapped the National Security Act on Tiwari, which means he will be locked up without bail for at least three months.
On Thursday evening, she assembled all the other Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs in Lucknow and gave them a tongue-lashing. She warned them of punitive action if anyone dared embarrass her or cause trouble for her government.
She also told them to observe her birthday as ‘Virodhi Party Dhikkar Divas’ (Down with the Opposition Day). She ordered them to spread out in the districts and hold political rallies against the opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress on January 15 instead of lining up at her house with opulent gifts.
An aide maintained that the usual birthday bash was called off after the Mumbai terror attack as a tribute to the victims. But there is little doubt that Mayawati is looking for an exit from the storm that has erupted around her penchant for oversized celebrations.
The Samajwadi Party and the Congress have jumped on the issue with glee and plan to kick up as much dust as they can in the months ahead. The two parties have already sewn up a seat-sharing arrangement and with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal expected to join them, the three-party front promises to put up a formidable opposition to Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.