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.

Similar is the case of Ansari. Mayawati had removed him from the post of APC after it was reported that his wife, Asma Hussain, a fashion designer, had organised a show at their official residence. The ouster had led to a hue and cry, with both Muslim clerics and the community’s political leaders terming it a conspiracy to bring down a Muslim officer. A disappointed Ansari wrote in his explanation letter to the Government that “an anti-Muslim lobby was behind the whole episode”. Ansari was the seniormost officer, with strong prospects of being promoted to the post of Chief Secretary.

Now, with an eye on the Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati has brought back Ansari. She had posted A K Gupta, who is one year junior to Ansari, as Chief Secretary. And so, for the first time a senior officer, holding the charge of APC, will report to a Chief Secretary who is his junior. However, least concerned about the bureaucratic protocol, the BSP chief has achieved her purpose. The Muslim clerics have thanked her for a ‘sensible decision’.