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For Ashram by same name, see Mayawati Ashram.
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]
[edit] Early lifeMayawati 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 bachelor's 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 careerIn 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.As mayawati is not married,some politicians taunt her in social conservative India as being not a mother, it makes her extremely popular in sexuel minorities. 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
Mayawati was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time on 13 May 2007. She announced an agenda that focused on providing social justice to the weaker sections and providing employment instead of distributing money to the unemployed. Her slogan is to make "Uttar Pradesh" ("Northen Province") into "Uttam Pradesh" ("Excellent Province"). Her first action was to suspend two IAS officers for non-performance alleging that they had 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 is 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 electionsMayawati's BSP did not match expectations in the 2009 general elections. The BSP, which was expected to win more than 35 seats in Lok Sabha from the state of Uttar Pradesh, succeeded in bagging only 20 seats. The BSP obtained the highest percentage (27.42%) of votes in UP for any one political party. It was in third position in terms of national polling percentage (6.17%).[12]. [edit] Controversies[edit] Taj corridor caseThe 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] EmbezzlementMayawati 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 giftsMayawati also came under heavy criticism from the opposition in 2008[16]. [edit] StatuesMayawati, in her term in office as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2007 built 40 statues of dalit icons like BSP founder Kashi Ram, B. R. Ambedkar and of herself. BJP party members while complaining to the Election Commission compared said Mayawati's is only the second democratic leader to get statues erected of herself, after Saddam Hussein [17]. The statues and the memorial parks in which they are erected are said to have cost the state Rs. 2000 Crore of the taxpayers' money.[18] Even when the state of Uttar Pradesh declared 47 districts as drought hit [19] and the entire economy of India was in a recession, Mayawati sought the sanction of the assembly for Rs. 557 Crore more to spend on these projects in contrast to Rs. 300 Crore for the drought [20][21]. In September, 2008 the Supreme Court of india has reproved the Uttar Pradesh government over construction of statues of Mayawati herself using taxpayers' money. [edit] Yamuna ExpresswayIt is alleged that 9000 farmers were robbed of their land in Mayawati's tenure [22] [edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links[edit] Timeline
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