Former UP chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has received a big boost with the Supreme Court holding on Friday that the Central Bureau of Investigation exceeded its brief in pursuing a disproportionate assets case against her from 2003 onwards.
The two-judge bench noted that under the orders of the Supreme Court the CBI was to look into the Taj Corridor controversy involving the BSP chief but had off its own bat instituted a separate FIR that permitted it to engage in a “roving inquiry” into Ms Mayawati’s personal assets.
The BSP supremo has long complained that the erstwhile NDA government at the Centre had sought to misuse the CBI against her for political ends. She is likely to feel vindicated on that count. Ms Mayawati’s political opponents are unlikely to give her a clean chit, however, for her last term as CM was marked by scams, including the infamous National Rural Health Mission irregularities involving large sums of public money. But it cannot be gainsaid that the court ruling has given the BSP leader considerable headroom in conducting politics in Uttar Pradesh and the Centre. Her room for manoeuvre has increased manifold. She can deal with the Samajwadi Party, now ruling UP, without feeling defensive. Equally, when she deals with the Congress at the Centre, she does not have to feel beholden to it for offering her political protection in case the SP turns on her party in UP. After all, the BSP leader has earned her reprieve through the highest court in the land, and not because the CBI — under the UPA dispensation — withdrew the DA case against her. Now that the BSP chief doesn’t have a CBI hook into her, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav may worry that his current leverage vis-à-vis the Congress may be reduced. The SP’s stock with the Congress had gone up with Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, although technically still a part of UPA-2, acting contrary, obliging the Congress to rely politically on the SP and BSP, including in the coming presidential election.
A DA case against the SP leader too is likely to come up for orders next week in the Supreme Court. This will also be watched with interest. Good news for Mr Yadav will better place him to dictate terms to the Congress and extract a price for his support (for helping the UPA-2 government with parliamentary numbers on key issues). If not, the SP may watch with chagrin the closing of ranks between the BSP and the Congress, somewhat at its expense. These considerations are likely to have a bearing on the electoral landscape in UP in the next general election.