Late in the evening on Thursday, without any announcements or pomp, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister inaugurated 15 projects — parts of various memorials in Lucknow — and several statues at the touch of one button. And without even driving to any of the project sites, she had raced ahead of a PIL that may have put the curtains down on her latest monumental initiative.

Advocate Ravi Kant, who filed the PIL in the Supreme Court, against “the misuse of money on memorials” by the Mayawati Government, attributed the hasty, hush-hush ceremony on Thursday to the decision by the Court earlier in the day to hear his case on June 29. While the case was originally to come up on July 13, Kant had moved the Supreme Court for an early date after hearing of Mayawati’s plans to inaugurate some more projects on July 3.

Instead, tonight, Mayawati made a short hop to the VIP plaza of the Ambedkar Memorial in Gomti Nagar and pushed a button to unveil the plaques of all the projects stacked at one point, including three of her own statues.

For the inauguation of projects involving thousands of crores of rupees, the gathering consisted of only about a hundred government officers and employees of the Lucknow Development Authority and the UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam, the two agencies involved in the construction of the projects. Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, Additional Cabinet Secretary Vijay Shanker Pandey, Secretary to Chief Minister Navneet Sehgal and DGP Vikram Singh accompanied Mayawati.

About a hundred yards away, stood a vast metal frame that had been erected for a rain-proof shamiana, big enough to accommodate 6,000 people, for the original July 3 function.

In a brief speech, the BSP supremo justified the construction of the memorials. “The total cost is less than the value of land on which memorials like Rajghat have been developed in Delhi,” she said. “They say that the money spent could have been used for setting up several hospitals and schools. But I want to make it clear that no fund of education or health departments has been used in the construction.” She added that the construction works also provided temporary jobs to a large number of people.

Neither the Chief Minister, nor the officials present, however, thought it necessary to explain why the ceremony was so subdued and sudden.

It was only around 4 pm on Thursday that officers were told to start making preparations for the ceremony. The projects Mayawati dedicated hours later to the public include a Kanshi Ram Memorial, the entrance to Amedkar Memorial, Ambedkar Vihar, Samtamulak Chowk, Samajik Parivartan Gallery, Bhimrao Ambedkar Drishya Sthal, Ambedkar Samkajik Parivartan Pratibimb Sthal, Samajik Parivartan Sangrahalay, Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Jan Suvidha Parisar, Buddh Bihar Shanti Upwan and Kanshiram Park.

Among these, Bhimrao Ambedkar Drishya Sthal and Ambedkar Samkajik Parivartan Pratibimb Sthal are nowhere near completion.

Mayawati flayed her opponents for criticising the installation of statues of such social icons, great men and gurus, “who brought change in society”, and “which would inspire coming generations of Indian society”.

To those objecting to the mushrooming of elephant statues all over, she said these had no connection with the BSP symbol. “In ancient times, elephants were deployed at entrances as a symbol of welcome. At Rastrapati Bhavan, Raj Bhavan and other buildings, elephant statues have been erected in the same spirit,” she said.