Mayawati on a pruning spree as elections draw closer
Adding to the list of sacked ministers, Mayawati has sacked another two ministers, reportedly for being disobedient. While the move could be a general cleaning of the house, but the timing forces one to doubt Mayawati's intentions. Assembly elections are just round the corner and the move could be a strategy to send a signal to the electorate that Mayawati doesn't tolerate corruption.
WITH STATE elections just over a month away, the UP Chief Minister Mayawati has embarked on a ‘pruning spree’ seemingly to give an impression that she won’t tolerate corrupt and disobedient ministers.
In a latest development, she sacked two more Ministers on Wednesday and even dropped them as candidates for the Assembly elections starting February 4 next year, reported The Times of
India. Earlier, she had sacked four ministers on charges of corruption, sending a signal that she is cleaning her house.
While the move has earned her appreciation, the timing of her actions indicates that there is more to it. One wonders as to why she has started sacking corrupt and disobedient ministers just when elections are drawing closer. The obvious explanation of people’s doubts is that she wants to remain in the good books of her electorate. Usually, people, when it comes to politics, have short-lived memories and sacking minsters at the beginning of her tenure would could skip people’s minds by the time UP goes to the polls.
Taking care of such sensibilities, Mayawati has started pruning her house so that people get a feeling that she or her cabinet isn’t corrupt. After Rahul Gandhi’s sustained campaigns in the state, Mayawati’s house has begun to shake, and both Congress and her party see the elections nothing less than a battleground for political survival.
Though Mayawati has announced the candidates for eastern UP, she is still discussing candidates for Western part of the state and according to the Indian Express, she has decided to field a good number of Muslim candidates for western UP as that is believed to be the only way of garnering their votes. There is a strong feeling that Muslim votes would go Congress party as has been the routine most of the time.
Also removing the disobedient Minsters from the party could prove counter-productive for the party as it would send a wrong signal among the electorate that their representatives are not getting due respect in BSP. This could add to the worries of Mayawati and could even become a leading factor of her loss in the elections.
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