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Sacrificing A Pawn

Kusum Rai resigns, but dissidents bay for Kalyan's blood

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Sacrificing A Pawn
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There's little doubt that the controversial corporator is a distressed person today. In an interview with Outlook soon after resigning as chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh social welfare advisory board, she rued her compulsions: 'I had to resign because people were using me as a pawn to attack the chief minister.'

The resignation came after the Centre's emissary, K.N. Govindacharya, camped in the state capital for three days last week in an attempt to bring about a truce between the warring bjp groups. The chief minister is believed to have persuaded Kusum to resign from the much-coveted post under pressure from the central leadership. The former corporator, however, denies this charge vehemently: 'It is just another baseless assumption.'

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The resignation, an obvious attempt to ease the dissidence in the state, appears to lack the desired impact. The rebels are still adamant about their demand for a change in leadership. And categorically deny that Kusum Rai's appointment was ever the solitary bone of contention. On the contrary, they say, it was the 'extra-constitutional position' she enjoyed that was the major irritant.

The dissidents argue that her appointment was announced in the newspapers on April 6, a day after they had met the central leadership - including prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and party president Khushabhau Thakre - in Delhi. 'So how could this have been the issue in question?' asks dissident leader Rajesh Pandey, bjp mlc. Kusum's resignation, he says, only proves a 'guilt-complex' on her part and on the part of the chief minister.

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Kusum Rai, however, denies seeking or getting any out-of-turn favours from Kalyan Singh. 'It is my sheer dedication to the party that made Kalyan Singh believe in me,' she says. The former corporator hails from a small village, Manpur, in Azamgarh district and claims to have been exposed to the Sangh parivar from her childhood. Her father, Mahattam Rai, had met Vajpayee in '56 when the latter stood for elections from Lucknow and Gonda. According to Kusum, Mahattam Rai became involved in the campaigns and the two men had spent a lot of time with each other.

Her first foray into local politics was in '95, when Kusum was given a ticket to contest as a corporator, courtesy Kalyan Singh, from the Rajajipuram ward that she now represents. She managed to get projects one after the other - including a mini-stadium and a 100-bed hospital for her area - earning the envy of other party corporators. To add insult to injury, the chief minister attended several official functions organised by her. It was during the function she organised to commemorate Kalyan Singh's December '97 victory that the grapevine took off about her 'proximity' to Kalyan Singh.

Seated in her living room, her husband backing every statement, Kusum says her husband had bought the house when he was a journalist with a local Hindi daily.Kusum challenges the investigating agencies to prove the charges that she has made money worth Rs 100 crore or owns a benami petrol pump in her hometown. Nor is she overly concerned about the sarcastic reaction of the bjp dissidents to her resignation. She believes she took the right decision to bail out the chief minister. 'I never wanted him to suffer because of me,' she admits.

However, the chief minister is still sulking. He refused to attend a May 20 high-command meeting summoning all senior leaders from the state to diffuse the ongoing crisis. His grudge, according to his supporters, is that even though Kusum Rai has resigned, the party leadership is yet to take action against the dissidents gathered against him.

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