From former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Sucheta Kriplani not staying in CM’s bungalow but in the staff quarters to Vishwanath Pratap Singh, as UP CM, being accused by Mulayam Singh Yadav of having staged 418 fake encounters in just two years — several anecdotes regarding UP politics came to life on Saturday during a discussion on the book At The Heart of Power: The Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, authored by The Indian Express Senior Associate Editor Shyamlal Yadav.
Veteran journalist and president IGNCA (Chair) Ram Bahadur Rai, who attended the event held at IIC Annexe in New Delhi, said the book discusses how UP’s first CM, Gobind Ballabh Pant, had once saved Jawaharlal Nehru’s life. He was referring to a police lathicharge on protesters against the Simon Commission in Lucknow, when Pant had fallen on Nehru to save him from police batons. Rai said that despite this, Pant did not agree with Nehru’s politics post-Independence.
Qamar Wahid Naqvi, former news director, TV Today Network, said the book documented the ideological fluidity of the Congress in those days, with Dr Sampoornanand as CM writing for RSS-associated Panchjanya even when he was the CM – something that would be impossible in today’s Congress.
Prof Sushma Yadav, Member of Justice (retd) K G Balakrishnan Commission and former V-C BPS Mahila Vishwavidyalaya in Haryana, recalled that while UP was seen as a state that sent Prime Ministers to Delhi, only two among its 21 CMs — Chaudhary Charan Singh and VP Singh — could make it to the post of PM.
Former BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal said the book was trend-setting, and expected more such books in the coming years.
Yadav mentioned some interesting aspects — Mayawati being the first UP CM to complete one full term, and Yogi Adityanath the first to go into a second term. The book also explains, he added, the power struggles between some UP CMs and the Centre, despite the Congress being in power both at the Centre and the state.
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