Her new properties are all in posh areas. Two in New Delhi’s commercial hotspot Connaught Place, another commercial property in Okhla, one house on New Delhi’s Sardar Patel Marg, and another on Nehru Road in Lucknow. The actual worth of these properties may be much more than that shown in the affidavit.

Incidently, when Mayawati admitted having assets worth Rs 1.67 crore, the CBI had, in a status report to the Supreme Court in the disproportionate assets case, stated that she actually owned assets worth Rs 28 crore. The case is alive and the CBI is yet to apply for permission to prosecute her.

According to Mayawati, the BJP got her framed in the Taj case and for owning assets disproportionate to her known sources of income because they “wanted to keep 60 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats which I refused to accept”.

The BJP's action “agitated my party worker who decided to give me money”, and authorised her to use it in whatever way she liked. “They said you buy bungalows in Delhi and Lucknow which I did, and now all this property is in the open and it is listed with the Income-Tax Department,” she said.

Mayawati’s property in Lucknow — 3, Nehru Road — is spread over 1,200 sq m. It was bought by Mayawati in 2005 from an Army personnel Gullu Chandani for Rs 97.42 lakh. Today, it is worth more than Rs 2 crore. The building is being renovated, and work has been going on for the last one-and-a-half year.