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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's meeting with party members, meant to thank them for organising the rally in Lucknow on September 28, turned out to be a reprimand, as she chastised them for failing to prevent the stampede after the rally, which left 16 persons dead.
She might have publicly passed the buck to the Indian Railways for the lapse that triggered the stampede at the Charbagh railway station, but she did not hesitate to blast her Bahujan Samaj Party members in private for their failure.
While the meeting was closed to the media, party insiders confirmed that 'Behenji' was extremely angry with everyone and made it loud and clear that the tragedy could have been averted if only they had cared to regulate the safe return of the volunteers who had come from different corners of the state.
"You only seemed to be concerned with bringing people [to the rally], so that you could impress me with the crowd, but you just did not bother about their return and left them to fend for themselves," the chief minister thundered.
She also took serious note of the fact that some party legislators zipped off to New Delhi or other places as soon as the rally was over. "I am told that some of the legislators were more keen on meeting ministers to seek petty favours than bothering to ensure the well being of the lakhs who had converged here to make the rally a grand success."
She issued a stern warning, saying, "If such legislators do not change their ways, I will be forced to hold fresh elections in their constituencies."
Nearly 90 minutes of her two-hour address was devoted to the lapse of her own cadre in managing the crowd.
Only later did she realise that she had pointedly blamed the railway administration for the incident and added, "Well, [the] careless attitude of the railway authorities led to the tragedy, but you could have saved it with some attentiveness."
Hinting at an early expansion of her Cabinet, she warned party members not to hanker after ministerial posts, but to concentrate on strengthening the party. She also warned legislators to stop indulging in "commission-baazi".
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