Maywati's low key birthday celebrations

LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Minister Mayawati, known for her elaborate birthday parties and public fanfare, celebrated her 54th birthday in a low key fashion on Friday.

The BSP czarina also kept away from cutting a cake cutting ceremony in public but announced public welfare scheme to the tune of Rs 7,312 crores on the occasion. The city was bedecked with blue lighting and the statues of herself and Dalit icons were decorated with flowers and special lighting arrangements.

Mayawati’s birthday on January 15 was earlier celebrated with much fanfare and was also marked as "Arthik Sahyog Diwas" (Economic Cooperation Day), in which BSP cadres collected money to be donated to the party coffers on the occasion.

But the sensational murder of an executive engineer in PWD allegedly by a BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari over the issue of money extortion for the birthday celebrations saw huge public outcry which led to the CM’s birthday party being spoiled last year.

Later, Mayawati announced that from this year onwards her birthday would be observed as "Jan Kalyankari Diwas" (People’s Welfare Day), in which BSP cadres reach out to the needy.

BSP general secretary and Mayawati’s close aide Satish Chandra Mishra accompanied by Secretary to the CM Navneet Sehgal distributed blankets among the poor on the birthday eve.

Children danced under psychedelic lights at a function held in the CM’s residence, which saw senior party leaders and bureaucrats being present in full strength.

Mayawati as per her past practice also released the fifth volume of her biography "A travelogue of my struggle and the BSP movement" on the occasion.

In her book she has recalled how rival political parties like the Congress, BJP and the SP ganaged up to prevent her from becoming the Prime Minister during the crissis over the trust vote on the nuclear deal issue.

She also said that the Congress was opposing the memorials being built by her government because of its anti-Dalit mindset and causing hindrances in their completion.