Although chief minister Mayawati has taken action against several party legislators and ministers against whom serious charges of corruption and involvement in the crime were leveled from time to time but the message went to public that persons in BSP were involved in corruption and criminal activities.

Opposition leaders charged chief minister Mayawati for being selective in taking action against legislators and ministers on corruption charges. It was pointed out that the chief minister took action against only those persons who came to the BSP from other parties and all those who had been in the Party for long, had not been touched.

The problem before chief minister is that in those areas where she took action and replaced party candidates she is facing revolt from those who had been enjoying comfort level during last five years in power.

Mayawati has not touched party coordinators who had become rival centre of power in districts. These coordinators were more powerful then the party MPs, MLAs and other small leaders.

Chief Minister had asked the officers to listen to the recommendations of coordinators who had allegedly been collecting funds.

The anti-incumbency factor of the government, ministers, MPs and MLAs is likely to affect the chances of party candidates this time.

Inaccessibility of chief minister Mayawati to her ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other leaders will also damage BSP campaign in the ensuing assembly elections.

Since chief minister Mayawati is not allowed to meet anyone excepting few ministers and senior bureaucrats, she is not getting right kind of feedback from ground.

It would be worth mentioning here that few months when the chief minister undertook tour to various districts for an on the spot study of development programmes launched by her government, people wanted to meet but they were stopped.

In Aligarh, a group of women who stopped the motorcade of the chief minister to draw her attention toward their problems were not only prevented from meeting her but also put behind the bar.

Chief Minister Mayawati is also worried about her own case of disproportionate assets pending in Supreme Court. She has tried her level best to get the case closed and submitted several affidavits but CBI is insisting on submitting charge sheet. Once CBI submits the charge sheet, it could lead to more problems for Mayawati before the polls.

Repeated letters from central ministers making serious charges of corruption against Mayawati government and non-implementations of 12 central aided projects have also unnerved the chief minister.

The latest letter is from union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh who said that he had reports that MANREGA was not being properly implemented in the state. He wrote about bungling that took place in seven districts where central funds were misused. The central minister demanded CBI probe into the MAREGA as labour budget exceeded Rs 5000 crores in UP.

Another central minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal also level serious charges of large scale bungling in MANREGA in UP and demanded that UP government should go for CBI probe.

Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari also alleged there was large scale bungling in all the 12 centrally financed schemes in the state. Pramod Tewari demanded that a white paper should be released on the issue. (IPA service)