Are Anna, Fakir next on Maya's chopper board?

LUCKNOW: After showing doors to over a dozen leaders who either lost the Lok Sabha elections or allegedly worked against party candidates, chief minister Mayawati's hammer may now fall on mafia don Aruna Shankar Shukla alias Anna and Faqir Siddiqui. The two leaders defected to BSP from SP last year but could not do much in the Lok Sabha elections and are now almost redundant for the party.
Significantly, both Anna and Faqir were close to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at one point of time and their defection came as a surprise to many.A listed gangster in Lucknow police's files, induction of Anna in BSP by Maya was even more shocking as he was one of the prime accused in the 1995 state guest house case. For this, SP workers tried to assault the BSP supremo as well. He was put forth as the Brahmin candidate of BSP from Unnao by replacing Brijesh Pathak who had been sent to Rajya Sabha. Anna, however, lost miserably with a margin of over three lakh votes.
Anna not only lost but also demolished Maya's much hyped posturing of being anti-criminals. Now, party sources said that Behenji is determined to oust leaders with criminal antecedents to improve party's image. But they could not explain as to why the action has not started from Dhananjay Singh, also a mafia turned politician, who won on BSP ticket from Jaunpur. Maya had fielded around 14 mafia dons in Lok Sabha elections and described Mukhtar Ansari whom she had fielded from Varanasi, as `Robin Hood' during campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
Faqir, on the other hand, was given charge of bringing Muslims close to BSP in Lucknow. But Muslims mainly voted for the Congress, resulting in an embarrassing defeat of party candidate from Lucknow Akhilesh Das, who is also the national general secretary, BSP. Das had defected to BSP after his relations turned sour with the Congress high command last year. He was presented as the BSP candidate from Lucknow. However, Das was wise enough to get elected for Rajya Sabha on BSP ticket. Hence, even after a loss in the Lok Sabha elections, he continues to be the member of parliament.
Earlier, an enraged Mayawati had stripped over 100 corporation and commission heads and deputy heads of their posts after losing elections. It was followed by large scale transfers of IAS and IPS from the districts from where BSP lost in the Lok Sabha elections. Thereafter, state BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya, who lost from Kushinagar was removed from the cabinet. Then the axe fell on over a dozen party leaders, including those who lost elections and those against whom there were complaints of working against official party candidates.
Meanwhile, sources in BSP said that Sanjay Garg could get the legislative council seat which is lying vacant following the resignation of Sudhir Goyal. Maya had nominated Goyal along with eight others for legislative council earlier this week but he resigned even before taking the oath on `personal grounds'. Now Maya is said to be looking for a `Bania' to replace Goyal. Garg was made in-charge of some western UP constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections where BSP preformed well. He could be rewarded for his ���contribution and loyalty', sources said.