Lucknow:
Mayawati plays a game of one up-manship with Sonia Gandhi over a bridge that Indira Gandhi had promised.
An inauguration stone made of cardboard, a paper bridge literally unveiled by the BSP in Lucknow, so what, if the actual bridge is 100 kilometres away in Rae Bareili.
This is a bridge of many twists and turns.
A bridge first promised by Indira Gandhi over 20 years ago, the money sanctioned much later by Sonia Gandhi in 2004 and now in 2010, when it was finally ready, Mayawati wanted to inaugurate it, obviously to stamp a landmark in her name, in the Gandhi constituency.
Hence, a hurried ceremony is a paper victory for Mayawati over the Congress.
The run up to the ceremony were a series of ludicrous events:
In December, Sonia Gandhi inspected the bridge and promised to open it to the public in March. The Mayawati Government hit back saying money might have come from the Centre, but the state built the bridge and a state minister would inaugurate it.
On Wednesday, when a Central Minister came visiting, Mayawati had him stopped 15 kilometres from the site.
About the same time, her close aide Naseemuddin Siddiqui inaugurated the bridge in Lucknow, a whole 24 hours before he was supposed to.
Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Uttar Pradesh PWD Minister says, "We had decided this much earlier. Mayawati was to inaugurate the bridge on her birthday on January 15, but because of the incomplete approach road, it didn't happen.''
R P N Singh, Minister of State, Surface Transport says, "This government is afraid of development. Congress has pledged that it will bring the same development in Uttar Pradesh as it is doing in other parts of the country."
"Inauguration is not a big deal. It doesn't matter who does it, Centre or state. But the problem lies in the fact that the state keeps putting obstacles in our projects", he added.
World over bridges are made to connect people and bring them closer. But perhaps only in Uttar Pradesh where Mayawati rules the state while the Congress is at the Centre can there be a bridge which does just the opposite.