Mayawati foists her brother on party

The appointment of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar as party vicepresident shows what parties that are based on a personality cult are all about. Oddly, however, Anand has been given the number two position in the party on condition that he will never become an MP, MLA or the Chief Minister. In parties like the BSP, no partyman has the gumption to speak up against brazen family rule. Why talk of a regional party alone when in the country’s oldest party, the Congress, no one dare challenge the elevation of a blundering Rahul Gandhi under whom the party has suffered huge reverses without the leader being hauled up or held accountable. Anand Kumar is not just an upstart in politics. He is also under the Income Text department scanner after extensive raids on him for IT evasion. The department is in the process of ascertaining the veracity of financial transactions undertaken by entities related to Anand Kumar after multiple survey operations at nearly a dozen premises of businesses and firms linked to him.

Without a shred of evidence to support her claim that the UP elections were rigged by the BJP, Mayawati is now trying hard to spread her message of EVM-tampering to other opposition groups. It is now a no-holds-barred battle with the Central establishment but her rantings are making little impact on the people. To add to her woes, Chief Minister Adityanath has ordered an inquiry into the Mayawati-led BSP government's decision to sell 21 state sugar mills for a song in 2010-2011. “A thorough inquiry should be conducted into the Rs 1,100 crore scam. If necessary, the state government would also recommend a CBI inquiry into the issue,” the chief minister had said when presentations about sugarcane development department were made before him last week. The splurging she did on statues and monuments related to the BSP during her rule are also under scrutiny. How the appointment of her brother as her number two in the party would help Mayawati to get over these problems is anybody’s guess.