E-Paper
No more donations for b’day, says Maya
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati abolished the system of donation collection on her birthday. HT Correspondent reports.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday abolished the system of donation collection on her birthday.
“The system of collecting financial assistance on my birthday (January 15) will be stopped from next year,”
she told her party leaders at the BSP’s national executive meeting.
Over the years BSP MPs, MLAs and workers have donated funds to the party coffer on Mayawati’s birthday . The fund-raising drive is called arthik sahyog (economic cooperation) by the party.
Mayawati has come under repeated attack from rival parties for raising fund through donation. They charge that BSP workers coerce businessman, officers and contractors for the donation.
The donation drive was at the centre of a controversy last year after the murder of PWD engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta in Auraiya town on December 24. Rivals alleged that local BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari had killed Gupta when he refused to donate for the CM’s birthday bash.
While announcing the abolition of the donation system, Mayawati, however, increased membership fee from Rs 20 to Rs 40. She said a special membership drive would be launched each year from January 1 to March 31. She said according to the party constitution, the membership fee is revised after gap of every five years.
