The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have little in common, but the fate of two ministers in their respective governments seems to be strikingly similar.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have little in common, but the fate of two ministers in their respective governments seems to be strikingly similar.
Babu Singh Kushwaha and Gayatri Prajapati’s political career in BSP and SP respectively is following a path that has an uncanny similarity.
Both the leaders belong to most backward castes — Babu Singh Kushwaha belongs to the Kushwaha, Maurya, Shakya community which is struggling to get classified as Scheduled Castes while Mr Prajapati, also an MBC, has been classified as SC after a high court ruling in 2014.
Both the leaders have humble beginning. Mr Kushwaha was one of the most trusted aides of BSP president Mayawati and went on to become his Man Friday in politics too.
Mr Prajapati, who belongs to family of a BPL card holder till about a decade ago, is also one of the most trusted man of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family — particularly his wife Sadhana Yadav and son Prateek Yadav.
Incidentally, Mr Kushwaha, in his early days as minister was given the mining portfolio, but was later upgraded to the family welfare department.
Mr Prajapati held the mining portfolio in the Akhilesh government and it is said that in his regime, illegal mining flourished in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Kushwaha, while he was in the BSP, was treated with disdain by his colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who is believed to have poisoned Ms Mayawati’s ears against him. Mr Kushwaha had even written a letter to the BSP president, apprehending threat to his life from Naseemuddin Siddiqui.
Mr Prajapati, on the other hand, also has several “enemies” in the SP, but no one came out openly against him because of his proximity to the first family of the party.
The spotlight fell on Mr Kushwaha when the NRHM scam came out in the open and a PIL was filed in the matter. Ms Mayawati dropped Kushwaha from her council of ministers to escape a CBI inquiry, but the court made sure that the case was handed over to the premier investigating agency. Mr Prajapati — like Mr Kushwaha — is now more susceptible to action by the CBI.
In another interesting coincident, Mr Kushwaha was dropped on the eve of the 2012 Assembly elections and Mr Prajapati’s ouster also came on the eve of the 2017 Assembly elections though he is now likely to be reinstated.
