Once upon a time it was an ominous sign—Bahujan Samajwadi Party President Mayawati lavishing praise on her lieutenants would evoke fear and retribution, for it would not be long before they were expelled for their perceived challenge to her primacy. The hapless party spokesperson and former Lok Sabha member Rashid Alvi was the last to learn the lesson the hard way three years ago, and he was soon consigned to the gallery of ex-loyalists.

So, it is with extreme reserve and caution that the three aides de camp—the BSP Brahmin mascot, Rajya Sabha MP and Maya’s closest confidant Satishchandra Mishra, Muslim leader Nasimuddin Siddiqui and OBC leader Babu Singh Khushwaha—accept Maya’s accolades for their enterprise, labour and dedication towards expanding the political base of the BSP just wide enough to win a stunning majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The word is clear—walk by her side, never in front of her; outshine in your task, not your leader; accept her paramount stature, and all is well. Question it, and you are at the deep end.

Mayawati has always been a loner, and rigidly so over the years, yet she has picked up a motley group of faithfuls—from the travel agent she always used, Pawan Sagar, who rose to become her OSD to serve in all three governments, her telephone operator and now OBC mascot BS Khushwaha, to Sagar’s wife, Poonam, who ran a beauty parlour and was instrumental in Maya’s makeover from behenji to ‘mod behenji.’ The latest to join the ranks is Mita Gautam, daughter of a serving district judge, who is being groomed by Mayawati as a possible party woman leader. Maya not only gave Mita a ticket from Fatehpur in Barabanki, but also funded her election, say insiders. She won.

... contd.