Tongues start wagging on cutting Satish Mishra down to size

The Bahujan Samaj Party national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, Satish Chandra Mishra, was on Monday virtually sidelined from the party's political and organisational affairs when he was named the chairman of its All India Legal Cell.

He is presently the Chairman of Uttar Pradesh Advisory Council.

Mr. Mishra, who was instrumental in enlisting the support of the Brahmins and was one of the architects of the successful social engineering experiment in Uttar Pradesh, was also divested of that responsibility. Now, the onus of enlisting the Brahmin support will be on Energy Minister Ramveer Upadhyaya, Gopal Narain Mishra and O.P. Tripathi.

These announcements, including the formation of the BSP's legal cell, were made by Chief Minister Mayawati at a mammoth rally here to commemorate the silver jubilee of the party's existence and the birth anniversary of its founder, Kanshi Ram. Ms. Mayawati made it clear that she had not drawn a "laxman-rekha" for Mr. Mishra, which barred him from participating in organisational affairs. “He can go anywhere in the country, but only after he is free from legal matters", the Chief Minister said. “Legal matters of the party would be a priority for Mr. Mishra and he would devote full time to these”, she added.

The Chief Minister said she had made this public announcement to dispel doubts and rumours that Mr. Mishra had been cut down to size. She lauded his efforts to strengthen the party.

Ms. Mayawati said she had been forewarned by her mentor, Mr. Kanshi Ram, that the BSP might have to face legal hassles in future, which is why the all-India legal cell has been constituted.

Apart from reconstituting the Brahmin "bhaichara" (brotherhood) core committee, the BSP president named Ministers Jaiveer Singh and Badshah Singh and alleged mafia-don-turned politician Dhananjay Singh to enlist the support of the Thakurs. Likewise, Akhilesh Das and Naresh Agarwal have been assigned the responsibility of garnering the support of the Vaishya (traders) community.

In fact, before the rally commenced and before the Chief Minister arrived at the venue in a helicopter, Mr. Mishra, in a rare gesture at a party rally, came to the Press enclosure, met the media personnel and shook hands with them. He also went to the podium where photographers and TV cameramen were positioned.

Again for the first time, the Chief Minister hit out against yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, albeit without naming him, for misleading the poor in the name of yoga, which was dubbed as "kasrat" (exercise) by her. Ms. Mayawati exhorted her party workers to prevent the poor from falling into the trap of "babas" and godmen, who propagated superstitious practices.