Maya sacks another MLA for switching loyalties

Bahujan Samaj Party president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday suspended party MLA  Jitendra Kumar Siingh Babloo, who happened to be the twelfth party legislator to be sacked by her over the past four years that she has been in power in the country's most populous state.

Action followed against Babloo after he switched loyalties and joined the Peace Party, which is gradually making inroads into several parts of Eastern UP.

Babloo got elected as a ruling party nominee from Bikapur state assembly in Faizabad district,one of the key hubs of East UP.

Significantly, Babloo was among the key accused in the arson and violence carried out at the residence of UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi after she made a statement against Mayawati.

He was then promptly rewarded by the UP chief minister who appointed him as chairman of a public undertaking and bestowed him with the rank of a minister of state.

Making this announcement in Lucknow, state BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya told mediapersons, "Action against Babloo was ordered by our party's national president because of his anti-party activities as well as his continued involvement in unlawful activities."

He said, "When Babloo was inducted into the BSP, there were some criminal cases against him, but he was inducted into the party on the promise that he would mend his ways and reform himself."

And he went on to add, "However, he failed to keep his commitment of reforming himself and continued to indulge in unlawful activities, therefore our party president decided to take disciplinary action against him."

He was of the view, "Ideally Babloo should have resigned from the BSP before switching loyalties to any other party, but apparently he wants to continue enjoying the fruits of being an MLA, therefore he chose to cling on to his membership of the state assembly, which I am sure, he will lose soon."

The BSP has already moved a petition before the assembly speaker seeking action against Babloo under the anti-defection law.

Among other BSP MLAs to have come under Mayawati's axe so far were Anand Sen, Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, Guddu Pandit and Yogendra Sagar.

They were suspended from the party for their alleged involvement in cases of rape, murder or kidnapping while Shahnawaz Rana had to lose his position because his brother was charged of rape.

Among those to be sacked on account of their involvement in other criminal activities including murder were Shekhar Tiwari, Farid Mahfooz, Avadhpal Yadav, Sher Bahadur Singh, Ashok Chandel, Fakhir Siddiqui and Haji Yaqub Quraishi, who was fired on Tuesday last for issuing certain anti-Sikh statements.

Beside these, earlier this month, Mayawati also fired Dhananjay Singh, the dreaded mafia don-turned-BSP MP from Jaunpur.