Maya's clean chit to Sachan baffles many

KANPUR: Known to change state party presidents like household linen, what prompted chief minister Mayawati to spare BSP state chief K K Sachan and instead heap fulsome praise on him?
A day after the high-voltage visit of the CM to the city, political circles here are agog with contradictory views on what eventually led to Sachan’s survival, more so since he has been mired in controversies for the past few weeks.
And so while there were rumours that the ‘behenji’s’ visit would spell doom for the bureaucracy, it would also be “noteworthy politically�.
This, however, did not take off as the chief minister in her public address at the Rampur Bhimsen village put a stop to speculation of Sachan’s likely ouster by saying that “people who think I will remove him are befooling themselves�.
A visibly relieved Sachan later bowed and touched the feet of Mayawati as she got off the dais and boarded the car. “Maine kah diya ab man lagakar kaam karo� (I have said it, now concentrate and work hard), she remarked. Political observers feel that this step of the chief minister was aimed to quell dissidence and factionalism in the city unit, which has come to the fore in the past few weeks.
Sachan, who holds complete sway over the babudom in the city is known to be a man of frayed tempers, while dealing with the rank and file as was visible at a part meeting last week when he almost came to blows with a senior party colleague. “There were serious complaints against him and we, like everyone is stumped at what made ‘behenji’ give him a clean chit�, mused a senior BSP worker.
A leader close Mayawati, too, conceded that while the CM was not too happy with “the way things were shaping up in Kanpur� she threw her weight behind Sachan since she was categorically told that unless she does this, she should forget her dreams of taking away seats from BJP and SP in the city.
The choice of the Ambedkar village in Sarsaul constituency (currently held by SP) was another indicator that the CM wanted a political message to go, said a close aide. Information with the Times News Network, however, reveals that till July 12 — a day before her visit, the CM was “by and large convinced of the need to do something about Kanpur bickerings�.
This, however, changed overnight when an anonymous 35-page fax was send to the chief ministers office (95522-2230002) at around 13:39 on Saturday. This dossier explicitly targeted Sachan and Ram Krishna Bhaskar, the city BSP chief. The fax message undersigned by the “wafadar party karyakarta� devotes five pages to Sachan and Bhaskar enlisting their ‘misdeeds’ which range from extorting money for transfers, land grabbing, anti-party activities and demoting party loyalists.
This messageproved to be the undoing of the BSP rebels who are out to claim the scalp of Sachan. Convinced that there was a coterie out to damage party prospects, the CM took it out on them at the rally and gave a clean chit to the state party chief.