The Bahujan Samaj Party has launched a fresh initiative to purge the party of tainted and criminal elements.
BSP president Ms Mayawati wants to lead the party into the next Lok Sabha elections with a squeaky clean image and has stated “operation clean” to weed out criminal elements right to the lowest level in the party.
“The BSP president is aware that the presence of tainted and criminal elements in the party had dented our image in the assembly polls to a large extent. Ms Mayawati now wants to remove all such elements before the next elections so that the party can move ahead on the strength of committed cadres and ideology,” said a senior party functionary.
The BSP president, according to party sources, has prepared a four-tiered system to identify such elements and also to scrutinise the new entrants in the party.
At the village or ward level, the list of party members as well as new entrants will be scrutinised by the district level office bearers. Then the divisional coordinators will cross check the list before it is sent to the state level office bearers for final approval.
Ms Mayawati, apparently, wants to make sure that the loyal and committed cadres in the BSP are not targeted in this exercise. The BSP has already shown the door to a number of tainted leaders who tarnished the party’s image with their misdeeds.
Former ministers, like Avadh Pal Singh Yadav, Badshah Singh, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Anand Sen Yadav, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi and Fateh Bahadur Singh, were shown the door after being denied ticket for the Assembly elections. Most of these former ministers are now involved in cases of crime and corruption.
If sources are to be believed, Ms Mayawati is also preparing to deny tickets to some of the sitting BSP MPs.