Another cash garland for defiant Mayawati

Lucknow/New Delhi, Mar 17 : Trust Mayawati to shoot from the neck. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister flaunted another cash garland on Wednesday after her party BSP gifted her one- this time its worth is Rs 18 lakh as initial reports suggest.

The new garland was presented to Maya at the emergency meeting called by her on Wednesday in Lucknow to discuss how to combat the opposition vocal after her public act on Monday when she wore a garland of Rs 5 crore made of currencies.

The second act was to defy opposition and an impending Income Tax probe on the source of the money.

A Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader said: "I want to tell through media to opposition that if Mayawati permits us we will always greet her with garlands of currency and not flowers, all over Uttar Pradesh.:"

"She has to permit us only."

Congress and other political parties slammed the brazen acts.

"It is not just in bad taste but also violates basic tenets of democracy. I hope the authorities will look into the sources of the fund," said Jayanti Natarajan of Congress on Wednesday.

Faced with a political backlash and possible Income Tax probe over her brazen currency garland act, Mayawati on Wednesday had called an emergency meeting of the MPs and MLAs but only to show she cared scarce little for raging criticism.

On Monday evening, the BSP chief raised her narcissism to a new level by wearing a garland made of thousands of thousand-rupee notes at a mega rally here.

The rally, held on the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshiram, was organized to mark 25 years of the party.

Media reports said the Income Tax department is probing the garland of thousand-rupee notes which BSP workers gifted her at a rally on Monday in Lucknow.

Reports said the IT department is gathering footage and pictures of the garland amid cries by the opposition that the evidences might be destroyed.

A report said the garland was made in the residence of a senior BSP leader by artistes from Karnataka.

Slamming Mayawati for her 'currency-garland', senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday said the party is looting Uttar Pradesh.

"Mayawati is no more a Dalit ke beti but Daulat ke beti [she is a daughter of wealth and not a downtrodden]. She is no longer the woman representing the common man. She is playing in lakhs and crores," Singh told reporters.

"It's not just Mayawati, but also her party (BSP) is looting Uttar Pradesh. The Centre should take action against this organized loot," he said and demanded legal action against the leader.