UP chief minister Mayawati is losing more and more of her ministers and legislators to crime and corruption.
The chief minister, till now, has shown the door to half a dozen ministers who have faced allegations of crime and corruption and nearly a dozen BSP MLAs are facing serious charges on these two counts.
On Sunday, state minister for homeopathy Rajesh Tripathi was asked to put n his papers after he was indicted by the Lok Ayukta for running an NGO that organises cremations on a ground that has been illegally occupied by him.
Earlier, the chief minister was forced to sack another state minister Anand Sen Yadav after the latter was charged with conspiring the abduction and murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Incidentally, Anand Sen was in jail in another case when his name was finalised for the council of minister in May 2007. He could be inducted into the council of ministers only after he obtained bail from court.
Another minister who lost his job for his involvement in a criminal case was Jamuna Prasad Nishad. Nishad created mayhem at a police station in Maharajganj to protest against “lack of action” in a case related to the rape of a dalit girl. His supporters allegedly shot dead a constable during the incident and Prasad was divested of his portfolio before being arrested. He died last fortnight in a road accident after being released on bail.
Mr Shrinath, chairman of the SC/ST Commission, lost his job after some TV channels put out reports of his illicit relationship with a woman. Ram Mohan Garg, chairman of Fish Development Corporation, also lost his job on similar grounds.
Nand Gopal Nandi, who was injured in a bomb attack in Allahabad in July this year, was divested of his portfolio reportedly on the request of the minister himself.
Mr Nandi, however, has recovered completely from his injuries but remains a minister without a portfolio. If sources are to be believed, the chief minister is in no mood to return Mr Nandi his portfolio after she was informed of the minister’s links with the underworld which led to the attack.
Among the BSP MLAs who have brought disrepute to the Mayawati government are Shekhar Tiwari, now in jail on charges of lynching a PWD engineer who refused to pay money for the chief minister’s birthday fund, Haji Alim, who was charged with the abduction and rape of Nepali girls who were forced to work in his circus, and Yogendra Sagar, who is facing a rape charge.
Another BSP MLA, Bhagwan Sharma aka Guddu Pandit is now in jail for abducting and intimidating voters in panchayat elections. He had earlier been in jail for sexually exploiting a research scholar from Agra.
Sonu Singh, a BSP MLA from Isauli in Sultanpur, is another frequent visitor to the jail. An accused in the murder of godman Sant Gyaneshwar, he was in jail again for the murder of a panchayat candidate.