By IANS
Lucknow : Ambitious schemes were launched and the city went blue greeting a pretty in pink Mayawati on her 52nd birthday Tuesday as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister declared that all the money for the grand party had been spent by her BSP loyalists.
Dressed in a glittering salwar kameez in a shade of her favourite pink, which looked suspiciously like the outfit she wore on her birthday last year, Mayawati began the celebrations by cutting a huge cake here – and eating it too.
Her close aide Satish Chandra Mishra, who is the party’s Brahmin face, was the first to offer a piece of cake to the chief minister, bedecked in pearl jewellery.
Other leaders of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were there too as were top officials of the state, led by Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar – all of whom queued up to offer her more cake, making sure that TV cameras recorded every move.
The cake weighed exactly 52 kg, in keeping with the significance of the day.
The state capital had been virtually painted in the BSP blue and the skyline was plastered with hundreds of hoardings showering greetings on the chief minister.
Security was tightened right from the traffic roundabout leading to her official residence on Kalidas Marg. There were as many as 16 hoardings along with a gigantic wooden gate draped in blue with pieces of mirror work.
Defending the extravagance, Mayawati announced later that Mishra had sponsored the cake and no government money was used.
“The hoardings and decorated gateways have been paid for from the hard-earned money of the party workers. Each penny spent has come from the party members,” she said.
She also announced the inauguration of her ambitious Ganga Expressway from Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh to Noida in the western edge. The 1,040-km long expressway will be completed in four years.
She did not speak on her party’s support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) central government in New Delhi. The BSP chief had stated last week that she might review her support to UPA Jan 15, if her demand for SPG (special protection group) security was not met.
Full page advertisements in national dailies listed Mayawati’s many plans for the day – besides the expressway, she will launch a programme for the rehabilitation and resettlement of those displaced by the highway project, a new health insurance scheme promising free treatment to below-poverty-line families and a Rs.16 billion action plan for nine drought-hit districts.
She left for Delhi in the afternoon to join the second leg of the celebrations there. The third volume of a book on her struggles, “Mere Sangarshmai Jeevan Evam BSP Movement Ka Safarnama Part-3”, will be released there.
In New Delhi too, the roads around Mayawati’s residence in Humayun Road were festooned with banners and posters.