India Today – October 08, 2018

STATES

UTTAR PRADESH

HARD BARGAINS

Mayawati and Ajit Jogi at the Sept. 20 press meet in Lucknow

Will Maya

Shape-shift?

The reverses in 2014

and after are past, the

BSP supremo is back to

dictating terms for

poll alliances

By Ashish Misra

My job is to provide transparency, secu-
rity and law and order to improve the
trade environment in the state.

Q. The BJP and its ally, the IPFT
(Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura),
are on the war path in the state.
In politics, nobody cedes their space.
It’s a healthy competition between the
two parties, not a rift.

Q. Literacy levels are high in Tripura,
but so is the unemployment rate. How
do you reconcile this?
Our government will create an IT city
here and appeal to the 12,000 engi-
neers from the state who are work-
ing outside to return home. ISRO has
already set up a technology incubation

centre in Agartala. We have set up one

BPO and one software technology

park. Several more are in the offing.

Q. What would you rate as your biggest

achievements in the past six months of

your chief ministership?

For the development of Tripura, our

first priority was to rid the state of cor-

ruption and bring efficiency and trans-

parency in the system of governance.

We cleaned up the recruitment pro-

cesses for government jobs, launched

e-tendering for infrastructure projects

and e-stamping for land and property

transactions. A biometric attendance

system was introduced in government

offices. We are also trying to make

policing efficient and transparent.

Q. Little is known about Biplab Deb

the person. Is it true that you were a

gym instructor as many seem to think?

I was born in Jamjuri village in Tripura.

My father was a pharmacist and among

the founding members of the Jan Sangh

in the state. I’ve attended RSS shakhas

from my childhood. After graduation

in 1999, I left for Delhi where I worked

for Suruchi Prakashan, the publishing

unit of the RSS. Then I worked with

Govindacharya and Rita Verma. During

my earlier days in Delhi, I used to exer-

cise in a gym, but was not an instructor.

I don’t have time to hit the gym now but

still do 150 push-ups daily. „

For full text of the interview,

log on to indiatoday.in

S

he’ll keep them guessing. After pub-
licly warming up to UPA chairperson
Sonia Gandhi at H.D. Kumaraswamy’s
swearing-in in Karnataka in May, and sacking
a senior party leader for using intemperate lan-
guage against Rahul Gandhi in July, BSP chief
Mayawati didn’t mince words in blaming both
the BJP and the previous Congress-led regime
for rising fuel prices on September 10.
A few days later, she trumped the Congr ess
in Chhattisgarh by striking a deal with ex-chief
minister Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattis-
garh for the coming assembly polls. The BSP
will contest 35 of the 90 constituencies, but the

parleys were kept secret until the surprise ann-

ouncement on September 20 in Lucknow.

Banaras Hindu University political scie-

n tist Ajit Kumar sees Mayawati’s alliance

with Jogi as a political tactic to pressure the

Congress into giving the BSP more seats in

the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assembly

polls. In bringing Jogi to Lucknow to annou-

nce it, he says, the BSP chief has also sent out

a message to the Samajwadi Party leadership,

which is keen on a common anti-BJP front in

the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Though a possible deal with the Congress is

in the works in MP, BSP state in-charge Ram

35

SEATS

Mayawati’s BSP

will contest in

Chhattisgarh, as part

of an alliance with Ajit

Jogi’s Janta Congress

Chhattisgarh

LUCKNOW

OCTOBER 8, 2018INDIA TODAY  17