Expanding the BSP’s appeal to ‘Sarvajan Samaj’ may have won her one election, but with the Lok Sabha polls round the corner, party chief Mayawati is reinforcing her core base of Bahujan Samaj. After a carefully picked up Cabinet and a balanced secretariat to broadbase her appeal, the BSP supremo is now concentrating on keeping her original vote bank intact and wooing the Muslim community by standing firmly against the nuclear deal.

Whether it’s opening the state’s coffers for scholarship for backward community students or starting Gautam Buddha University in Noida that promises SC students stints with foreign universities, with the Government bearing the cost, Mayawati is fulfilling the Bahujan agenda of her party. In fact, each decision of her government taken off late seems to be aimed at sending a positive message to the original vote bank of the party.

A case in point is the withdrawal of UPCOCA (UP Control of Organised Crime Act) Bill 2007, the terror law that had attracted strong objections from the Muslim community.

Early this month, Mayawati brought about a sudden, but major, change in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. About a dozen officers were either brought in or shunted out. What amazed everyone was the posting of senior bureaucrats J N Chamber (a Schedule Caste IAS officer) and Anis Ansari (a Muslim IAS officer) as Principal Secretary to the CM and Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC), respectively.

Chamber had been shown the door by Mayawati when his daughter, Disha, was handpicked by Rahul Gandhi to play an active role in the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. Disha led a demonstration against the state Government and thereby caused much embarrassment for Principal Secretary (Home) J N Chamber. It was only after Disha surrendered her primary membership of the Congress that Mayawati rewarded him by bringing him to the CMO.

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