A very big party in Uttar Pradesh is ‘Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’, whose head Mayawati was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the period 2007-2012. Yes, during that time some mafia who supported the Samajwadi Party were definitely sent to jail, but those who were in BSP or came – they got full support of the state government. Mayawati did not know how much development the Dalits did during this period, but yes, she definitely filled the entire state with her idols.

In the 2012 assembly elections, the EC had ordered to cover these idols.
The issue had cropped up in the 2012 assembly elections as well, as opposition parties had made it clear that having statues of Mayawati in various parks and squares meant that the code of conduct was being violated. The Election Commission gave orders to cover these idols, but in doing so, the officials lost their sweat. Many of these were huge statues, so covering them was not an easy task. Plastic sheets and clothes were brought in several trucks to cover them.

Mayawati had made many statues not only of herself but also of her political guru and BSP founder Kanshi Ram. He said that this is being done to give respect to the Dalit faces. A dozen statues of Mayawati were made only in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh and Noida, a part of the National Capital Region (NCR). Apart from this, there were about 75 statues of elephants in these two cities. Please tell that the election symbol of BSP is elephant.

There was a fear of voters being affected by this, that is why the Election Commission ordered the Mayawati government to cover these idols. There were statues/photos of Mayawati from government offices to streets, which were removed or covered up during elections. Some of these statues were even 15 feet (4.6 m). A government official then said that removing these idols is as difficult a task as the size of an elephant.

A leaked US diplomatic cable even revealed that Mayawati had sent an empty private jet to Mumbai to get a pair of sandals for herself. However, she has been denying these allegations. Then Uttar Pradesh was not like this, as it is visible on the completion of 5 years of the BJP government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Then the state was devoid of development and there was a huge lag in the health sector. At the same time, the crime was so much that it became known to the mafia and so-called bahubalis.

Mayawati had defended her move in the Supreme Court

There has been a tradition in India to install a statue of a dead person, but Mayawati used to call it an old tradition. That is, being modern meant, in his eyes, the installation of his own idols. This matter had also reached the Supreme Court and Mayawati had also defended her move in the Supreme Court in April 2019. He had even said that these idols ‘represent the wishes of the people’. He filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court.