Mayawati's acid test

Mayawati, the potent leader of Dalits, is unwillingly gearing to bear the brunt of political battle that she initiated against the second most regional political opponent, Samajwadi Party after snatching Uttar Pradesh's power last year by constitutional means. Mayawati's stern dislike against Rahul Gandhi's Dalit love, the widening trench between Congress and BSP and the Congress' determined step to maintain distance with her can be seen into the present scenario when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) all of a sudden is set to file chargesheet against BSP supremo Mayawati. Reluctant to CBI's unprecedented move, she has to ready for the acid test.

To keep SP under blanket, she carried out some offensive measures against the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, his brother Shivpal Singh and son Akhilesh Singh and last but not the least lieutenant Amar Singh. During a scuffle against the Lucknow police while the SP leaders and workers were carrying out protest against the state government's decision to ban students' union election, the brother and son of Mulayam Singh got a tight slap by the police (the incident of slapping politicians by police without any grave reason was rare in the history of UP unless or until the police were instructed by some top notch to do so).

After having had accounts with SP leaders, Behanji, irked over the Rahul Gandhi's philantopic journey with Dalits marked by young Gandhi's living, eating, sleeping with them, made some indignant remarks against his Dalit-love and lifestyle as well that also infuriated mother and the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

After a desperate waiting, Congress and Samajwadi Party's wavelength has matched forgetting the for a time political compulsion that has brought the two adversaries on a single platform. The latter has come as a rescuer to the govt struggling over nuclear deal forgetting the insult meted out to Amar Singh four years ago by Sonia Gandhi, and now the duo would leave no stone unturned in settling scores with the BSP supremo Mayawati.

The recent onslaught on Mayawati by the Centre's investigative agency, CBI, can be seen in this perspective. Though CBI's charge sheet, which is to be filed soon, matched with the Supreme Court's summon to CBI hearing petitions by the Mayawati that all cases framed against her soon to be quashed. The reason for annulling all cases against her, she says, as she was being framed up by the CBI on the instigation of the Centre, which wanted to score political accounts with her.

Sooner or later it was to happen as the CBI said it had almost completed investigation against Mayawati and mustered enough evidence to run Rs 28-crore disproportionate assets case against her. The agency said a prima facie case of corruption appears against her.

Mayawati, except disproportionate wealth case, along with a cabinet colleague and several officials are also accused of siphoning money off the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor project. The Taj Corridor case though has been shut down.

The unconvincing leap from Rs 1.35 crores to Rs 52 crore in just four years with little information of the 'source of income' on the part of Behanji had enough to justifying CBI's decision to file chargesheet against her in disproportionate assets case.

Mayawati accused CBI for harassing her by keeping alive DA case on the instigation of Centre which was misusing the Agency to destabilise her political career. The CBI, against the allegations said, the agency was doing its professional job and after minutely investigating the case, has come to a conclusion that it was apt for it to file chargesheet against the UP Chief Minister as mandated under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc).

All of a sudden waking up of CBI, widening gap between Congress and BSP, and the forthcoming general elections can not be mere coincidental. The Congress' joining hands with SP at the national as well as regional level, not still yet but the announcement of that is likely very soon, is the signal of shifting polarisation of politics in Uttar Pradesh from unitary-centred into Mayawati's hand to the duo's-SP and Congress-hand.

The Congress along with SP is all set to fray decisive war against the BSP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections the battle ground for which has been much early started and so CBI's move to file chargesheet against Mayawati, who alleged CBI as a political tool in the hands of ruling party, can not be overlooked beyond this.