Prajapati’s wings clipped, an ‘incredible’ journey cut short

LUCKNOW: From a petty contractor to a powerful minister in the state cabinet, it was an incredible journey for Gayatri Prasad Prajapati before he was sacked on Monday.

A backward face of the Samajwadi Party, Prajapati’s dismissal a few months before the state assembly elections has left political observers bewildered.

Prajapati was in the thick of controversy in July last year after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav locked horns with IPS officer Amitabh Thakur regarding illegal mining. Nutan Thakur, the IPS officer’s wife and a social activist, lodged a complaint of illegal mining and disproportionate assets against Prajapati at Lokayukta office in January 2015. The lokayukta collected incriminating evidence against Prajapati and for a while it seemed that minster’s game was over.

However, he managed to get the blessings of top leaders of SP and continued in the cabinet. As the opposition clamoured for Prajapati’s resignation, citing his involvement in the mining racket, SP not only defended him vehemently but also entrusted him with the task to woo members of backward communities.

Earlier, during the party’s 2014 Lok Sabha elections campaign, Mulayam had flagged off his pan-state ‘rath yatra’ to court the backward communities. At that time, Prajapati had led the raths and had organised rallies.

Even with SP faring badly in the Lok Sabha elections, Prajapati did not lose the confidence of the SP chief. In fact, his graph surged upwards as he took on Rahul Gandhi in his home turf Amethi and also hit out at senior BJP leaders.

So, why did SP dump its backward face a few months prior to the crucial assembly elections? A senior leader from the party on condition of anonymity said that the move was aimed at refurbishing SP’s image before the polls next year. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav wished to “get rid of tainted ministers”.

Reportedly, the state government also wishes to escape embarrassment after the Allahabad High Court in its September 9 order rejected an application by UP government to withdraw a two- month-old HC order, where the court had directed CBI to investigate allegations of illegal mining across the state. On the state government’s request, the hearing of the case has been deferred till September 12. It may be recalled that after a public interest litigation (PIL) (filed by Vijay Kumar Dwivedi) alleged that mining leases of a number of lessees had been unlawfully extended in the state after the same had expired in 2012, the court had ordered a CBI probe in the case on July 28. With this, once again Gayatri Prajapati’s alleged involvement in the illegal mining racket surfaced.

The SP leader added that a complaint had also been received against Rajkishore Singh, for his alleged involvement in the check dam scam. Some SP leaders recently lodged a complaint against him with the CM, accusing him of grabbing land on the Kanpur- Lucknow highway. After their complaint, the construction of a private housing colony on the land was stopped by the district administration.