Defeated Maya cracks the whip

After the results, the heads are beginning to roll.

A livid Mayawati has sacked 100 to 125 officials, chairmen of all the corporations in Uttar Pradesh who were tasked with campaigning for the party because they didn't do their job.

Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen and members, numbering over 100, were summoned to the party office on Monday evening and were asked to submit their resignations, official and party sources said, adding some ministers may also be shown the door.

The Chairpersons of corporations, who enjoy the status of ministers of state, invited Mayawati's wrath as "they were given responsibility to mobilise people in favour of the party during Lok Sabha elections", party sources said. But the BSP was placed at the third spot in UP, bagging only 20 out of 80 seats.

At the meeting, which was chaired by party general secretary Babu Singh Khushwaha, all the office bearers of corporations were asked to submit their resignation letters.

Chairperson State Women Commission Abha Agnihotri, who is the sister of Mayawati's close aide Satish Chandra Mishra, was the only exception as she was not removed, the sources said.

It was not the only plan that failed. Mayawati's famous social engineering fell flat.

Many Dalits, responsible for her thumping victory in the assembly elections 2 years ago stayed away from the booths this time, disappointed that they had not been rewarded for their support.

They are also unhappy that Brahmins were preferred over them - a strategy that did not yield results.

A look at what went wrong in these elections also shows that many candidates took the Dalit voter for granted and did not even campaign in their neighbourhoods and so the elephant march to Delhi has been halted in its tracks in Lucknow. But the obstacles will be examined and the people responsible for them will be punished.

But for now, this is as far as Mayawati can go with her prime ministerial ambitions. (With PTI inputs)