Chief Minister-designate BSP President Mayawati’s promise yesterday for an immediate probe into the desperate act of destroying official papers in the office of the just deposed Samajwadi Party minister, Azam Khan, must bring back scary memories for the bureaucracy, her political rivals and their coterie.

Mayawati did not waste any time. Barely had the results begun confirming a win for the BSP, Mayawati announced she had already called the DGP on phone to investigate the matter.

It was the theme of her election campaign. As Mayawati heli-hopped from one district to another, she promised voters an end of ‘jungle and goonda raj’ in the state, an efficient administration and putting her rivals Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh into prison if found guilty. While she asserted at her first press conference that there would be “no political vendetta”, the administration is certainly gearing up for a major clean-up of the system.

But officials close to Maya marvel at the expeditious and diligent manner in which the CM-designate has come out with a blueprint for development and progress for the state. “Mayawati has the advantage of taking over UP as a veteran rather than a novice,” says a bureaucrat, “and she has spent the last two years not only building a superstructure for her party, but also has a broad vision for the state.”

Her first priority, says the official, will be a revision of policies for small and marginal farmers, who are at the bottom of the economic and social ladder. Maya has envisioned a rehabilitation policy for them, which would include the landless too. Another major plan is a complete regeneration of towns and cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra. “Most of the cities are dying,” says an official, “and Mayawati has plans to generate life into these cities.” There are also mega projects in the pipeline, bigger than before, to build a super infrastructure for the state.

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