Mayawati's BSP gets to own several plots

NEW DELHI: For a party that claims to be committed to the welfare of the sarvhara samaj, the BSP has indeed done very well for itself, having emerged in the last few years as one of the biggest real estate dealers. Even before it came to power in Uttar Pradesh in May last year, it had made a name for itself through land dealings. The pattern in almost all the cases was the same and the BSP eventually emerged as the principal beneficiary. The party would come to possess a prized tract of land or a portion of a building ��� all of them in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh ��� through a maze of transactions. In a few of the cases, it would then pass them on to its senior leaders.

Sample a list of such transactions. A property measuring 1.08 acres, in Lucknow cantonment, was bought by Ms Mayawati for Rs 90 lakh in 2006. The sale deed, which was executed on March 28, says that the plot of land was sold to her by Mr B N Mishra. The stamp duty paid in this case was Rs 7.20 lakh.

Plot No 425/15 in Lucknow���s New Hyderabad locality came under the possession of Mr S C Mishra, the high-profile general secretary of the BSP, way back in 1988. He built a three-storeyed structure, with a total of six flats, within the premises, and proceeded to sell them to his party (Flat Nos 3 and 6), and to one of his party colleagues, Usha Gautam, (Flat No 5). Each flat, measuring 200 sqm, was sold for Rs 19-20 lakh.

In a reverse process, the BSP, through general secretary Babu Singh Kushwaha, sold a plot measuring 1,471.23 sqm to Mr Mishra for Rs 77 lakh on April 29, 2005. The address: Plot Nos 16 and 16A, Havelock Road, Housing Scheme, Mohalla-Barafkhana, Thana-Husainganj.

Again in 2005, Mr Mishra and his wife Kalpana sold a plot, along with the building on it, in the state capital���s plush Hazratganj area to the BSP for a whopping Rs 1.30 crore. The property was subsequently sold by the party through Mr Kushwaha to Kolkata-based Ramdhani Commodities, through director Ajmal-Ur-Rehman for Rs 1.5 crore on March 30, 2006.

Another property, with the address bearing Plot no 5, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, Havelock Road, Lucknow, was donated by the BSP through Mr Kushwaha to the Bahujan Prerna Trust, a public charitable trust with its registered office at 11, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi. The trustee and authorised signatory was Mr Anand Kumar, who is Ms Mayawati���s younger brother. The market value of this plot, measuring 2164.03 sqm, was shown as Rs 1.95 crore.

The revelations about the property acquisition and sale drive undertaken by BSP in the past few years are certain to add to woes of party supremo Mayawati, who also happens to be the chief minister of UP. The Centre had earlier this month filed a petition in the Delhi high court challenging the clean chit handed out to her by the Income Tax Apellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the disproportionate assets case. It alleged in its petition that the UP chief minister attempted to evade payment of taxes by showing ���sham transactions��� in the assessment year 2003-04 and that ITAT had erred in accepting her explanation on the source of her income.

The ITAT, in a bizarre order pronounced on November 30 last year, had accepted Ms Mayawati���s explanations and legitimised property worth Rs 65 lakh and an additional amount of cash, pointing out they were `gifts��� made out of `love and affection��� from her followers, and hence could not be taxed.