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Shahira Naim in Lucknow
On May 7 this year, the Supreme Court delivered a historic and detailed judgment. A Division Bench comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi ruled that a former chief minister is only a commoner and not a “special class of citizen” who can enjoy privileges, perks and official bungalows at taxpayer’s expense for his entire lifetime.
Following the order, on May 18 the Uttar Pradesh Estate Department issued notices to all former chief ministers to vacate their official bungalows within 15 days. Notices were issued to former chief ministers ND Tiwari, the present Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP national president Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Two days later, on May 20, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh became the first to vacate his government accommodation in Lucknow’s high-security zone.
Kalyan Singh, the former Chief Minister, also started shifting his belongings from ‘his bungalow’ to his grandson Sandeep Singh’s residence. Sandeep is a minister in CM Yogi’s cabinet. However, once-sworn enemies, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati indulged in similar tactics to defy the apex court’s order to retain the sprawling government accommodations.
Even before the state’s notification, Mulayam Singh Yadav met CM Yogi Adityanath on May 17 to request him to allow the transfer of his and Akhilesh’s bungalows in the name of MLAs Ram Govind Choudhary and Ahmed Hasan. They are leaders of the opposition in the Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad, respectively. However, an IAS officer at the CM’s secretariat turned down the request and the notification to vacate the bungalows were issued within 24 hours.
To retain her plush 13A Mall Avenue bungalow, overnight a board of Kanshi Ram Yaadgar Vishram Sthal appeared on Mayawati’s bungalow. On May 25, the BSP general secretary Satish Misra and leader of the BSP legislature party Lalji Verma met CM Yogi to inform him that the notice served to Mayawati to vacate her 13-A Mall Avenue residence was ‘erroneous’ as the house had been allotted to Kanshi Ram Yaadgar Vishram Sthal.
Misra presented a Cabinet order of January 2011, when the state cabinet had passed a resolution of allotting the bungalow ‘Kanshi Ram Yaadgar Vishram Sthal’ for the people. According to Misra, the bungalow was originally allotted to Mayawati. But in 2011, the then UP Government, headed by her, decided to convert it to a memorial dedicated to the memory of the BSP founder.
On June 2, Mayawati dramatically vacated the few rooms she occupied in the bungalow and moved into a private accommodation. Then on June 3, Mulayam Singh Yadav and the SP president Akhilesh Yadav vacated their bungalows a day before the expiry of the deadline.
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