Facing a bunch of restive MLAs after the BSP’s poor show in the Lok Sabha elections, UP Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday mollified them by promising to set up a new system to redress their grievances. In response to complaints that ministers and bureaucrats did not heed their concerns, Mayawati assured irate MLAs that she would ensure that they would not have to depend on them.

In the meeting of MLAs and ministers that she called to take stock of the situation, Mayawati gave unusually mellow responses to the uncharacteristically strident questions from her party members, patiently offering possible solutions to their problems.

The Chief Minister said there would be no transfers in any department for one year in a move that apparently aims to curtail the powers of ministers. Asking her MLAs to identify new seats that they would like to contest from in the next election after delimitation, Mayawati asked them to submit their reasons for choosing a particular constituency and promised to clear these applications promptly. In the event they were willing to wait for another five years, she told them, they could even identify a Lok Sabha constituency instead.

Mayawati also promised her MLAs that she would ensure that the bureaucracy adequately addresses their concerns. “The CM’s principal secretaries would not show any laxity in the matters that a party MLAs takes to them. The officers would directly contact the head of department concerned and get the work done within a week,” said a BSP MLA. “If Pancham Tal (fifth floor, a euphemism for the CM’s secretariat) fails to deliver results, we would approach the party’s national general secretary and Mines Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in the party office. He would be available for us from Monday to Friday between 11 am to 1 pm daily,” he added.

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