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After taking the scalp of Bahujan Samaj Party's Karnataka unit general secretary VN Sharma, the controversial multi-crore currency note garland, has had one more head roll, in Lucknow.
Peeved over the widespread criticism over the currency note garlands she was busy flaunting around, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Thursday gave marching orders to her close confidante Vijay Shankar Pandey, who was principal secretary (information and public relations).
If Sharma lost his job for spilling the beans about the garland and going on record that the precious garland was prepared by the Karnataka unit of the party, the all powerful Pande was shown the door because of his "failure" to soften the harsh criticism that Mayawati invited on account of the garland.
Besides the all important position as head of the chief minister's media management team, Pande was also divested of the prime posts of principal secretary to chief minister as well as additional cabinet secretary (a post specially carved out for him).
However, his proximity to the BSP's brahmin mascot and general secretary Satish Chandra Misra has got Pandey the position of principal secretary (health), so far held by Pradeep Shukla, who moves to being principal secretary (food and civil supplies).
Pandey was being replaced by Shailesh Krishna, a one-time Maya blue-eyed boy, who was twice earlier shunted out of the chief minister's secretariat, allegedly at Pande's behest. Krishna, who has played a long innings in the information and PR wing of the UP governmentboth under the Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as Mayawatienjoys tremendous goodwill with media.
However, Krishna's persistent bull-dozing of the media earned him a lot many enemies. "In fact, the anger of the media against Pande often got reflected in the media tirade against the chief minister," remarked a senior BSP leader, who felt, "I am sure Behenji would not have got such a bad press because of the garland issue if Pande had not annoyed scribes because of his arrogant ways."