LUCKNOW, 4 May — Mayawati, a 46-year-old former schoolteacher who gave up a career in civil services to become an activist for the Dalit cause, was yesterday sworn in chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time.
On a hot and sultry afternoon in the state capital, Mayawati assumed office as head of a 24-member coalition government comprising her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the regional Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
Governor V.K. Shastri administered the oaths of office and secrecy to Mayawati, together with 23 ministers at an unusual venue — the sprawling play-field of the 158-year-old La Martiniere College.
Mayawati earned the distinction of being the only woman to become chief minister of the most populous state for the third time.
Later, addressing a press conference, Mayawati listed the state’s grave financial health as the biggest challenge before her. "The biggest challenge that lies before me today was to improve the financial condition of the state."
She said, "From what I understand, the decay has set in largely on account of an increasing imbalance in the state’s revenue and expenditure."
Mayawati said, "My emphasis is therefore going to be on strict realization of dues, fixing accountability and toning up the administration by checking pilferage and taking serious cognizance of corrupt practices."
She also blamed the power crisis on "large-scale power theft", which she proposes to deal with an iron hand.
While stressing that law and order would be her priority, she also sought to send a message to the minorities "not to get misguided by a Samajwadi Party sponsored campaign about branding BSP as communal simply because of its alignment with the BJP."
She said: "I wish to assure the Muslims of this state that they should have nothing to fear; our past record will tell them that we have never allowed any kind of discrimination on the basis of religion, caste or creed; and we will not allow this under any circumstances even now."
While the new Council of Ministers included 19 ministers of the Cabinet rank and four ministers of state (with independent charge), Mayawati proposes to go for an expansion very shortly. As if to prove that the BJP was no more the big brother, she kept the BJP representation well below her own party’s. Thus, against the BJP’s nine, there were 13 ministers belonging to the BSP while two were from RLD.
The swearing-in ceremony was different from all such past occasions in more ways than one. Draped in blue and white, a nearly one-acre sprawling marquee was erected for the event that was covered live by Doordarshan’s, the state television, national network.
"This was unprecedented," said a Lucknow Doordarshan official, who maintained, "I do not know of any other swearing-in of any chief minister in any state being covered live by us".
This was the third time in Uttar Pradesh’s history that a swearing-in ceremony was held outside the precincts of the governor’s house, the traditional venue for such events. Ironically, on both occasions they were Maywati’s sworn adversaries, Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav, who preferred the local sports stadium to the governor’s house for their swearing -in.
According to an official, "Mayawati had expressed her desire to have the swearing-in ceremony carried out in an open area so that her common supporters could also have a glimpse of a Dalit woman’s rise to the high office."
