Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati may be on her way out of 'pancham tal' – Chief Minister's Office in the Secretariat building – but she has the distinction of being the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh to have completed a full five-year term in the post.
The Dalit czarina, whose social engineering catapulted her to simple majority of 206 in the 403-member state assembly in the 2007 elections, became the first Chief Minister of the state to do so since independence.
The leader, who her rivals accuse of having megalomaniac tendencies, became the Chief Minister for fourth time in 2007 achieving the feat of former Chief Ministers Chandrabhanu Gupta and N D Tiwari of Congress who had graced the post four times each.
The history of the state shows that none of the 31 Chief Ministers were able to complete a five year term, not even stalwarts like Gobind Ballabh Pant, Sucheta Kriplani, V P Singh, Kamlapati Tripathi, Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav among others.
Pant took oath as first Chief Minister of the state on May 20, 1952 but two years later he was succeeded by Sampurnand. In the next assemly elections in 1957, it was Sampurnanda who led Congress to victory but after his demise in 1960 Chandra Bhanu Gupta became the Chief Minister.
After electoral victory in 1962, Gupta became Chief Minister for the second time but had to resign within a year paving way for Sucheta Kriplani to become the first woman Chief Minister in independent India in 1963.
Comments
0 comment