Has Mayawati mellowed at 57?
Tuesday January 15, 2013 07:37:28 PM,
Mohit Dubey,
IANS
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Lucknow: No
multi-crore currency note garlands, no multi-tiered cakes, no pomp
and show... Has a spell out of power mellowed firebrand BSP
supremo Mayawati? If the low-key celebrations Tuesday on her 57th
birthday are any indication, 'Behenji' is now a changed person and
so admit her close aides.
Dethroned by arch rival, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and with more
than four of her ministers on the run from law enforcement
agencies on different charges, senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
leaders point out that a "personality change" for the former Uttar
Pradesh chief minister was need of the hour, especially with a
hostile regime and chances to recapture power "a good four years
away".
Noting that the mercurial leader had realized that she had been
cut off from the very people who brought her to power, a senior
BSP legislator told IANS that in the last eight months, 'Behenji'
(as Mayawati is known) had fallen back on the "traditional"
mechanism of calling party faithful and office bearers on phone
early morning.
This system was discontinued in her last stint as chief minister
when "feedback" was largely left to a set of favoured bureaucrats.
She is now particular to keep in touch with party rank and file
and grants an audience "much easier than before", a functionary
from Bithoor (Kanpur) told IANS.
Her interactions with media have also increased and in the first
fortnight of 2013 alone, she has spoken to the local media thrice
and hosted them for lunch. On one of the occasions, she stayed
back for lunch and held informal chats with media persons -
something new to most journalists who have been ignored by her
earlier.
Talking to IANS some time back, Mayawati had admitted of "some
gaps" and assured that "this would be bridged now and she would be
available".
Less ostentation seems part of the new approach.
Celebration of her birthday in New Delhi and to keep it a low-key
affair was a "personal decision" for Mayawati, said a senior party
leader who clarified that the party units were however celebrating
her birthday in various districts of Uttar Pradesh "as per their
own faith and love for the leader".
Barring a full page advertisement by mafia-don-turned-politician
Dhananjay Singh, a legislator from Jaunpur Sadar, the birthday
celebrations in Uttar Pradesh were largely muted. Missing was
Mayawati, wearing heavy diamond jewellery and cutting a
many-decked cake.
The BSP supremo, a close aide said, spent her birthday quietly
with her brother Anand, his wife and relatives at her New Delhi
home. She also met some senior party leaders and took telephone
calls.
In Uttar Pradesh, party leaders were asked to hold meetings and
apprise the supporters of the "anti-Dalit" actions of the Akhilesh
Yadav government, and senior party leaders tasked to interact with
the media for the same purpose.
In Lucknow, Mayawati confidante and former minister Naseemuddin
Siddiqui was the chief guest at a function held by the district
unit at Jyotiba Phule Park which has been specially decorated for
the day.
Maywawati's change of tack in celebrating her birthday as also in
her interactions with party workers and media, many feel, was not
only calculated but also essential if she wanted a "national role"
for her post 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
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