Noida:
Local administration officials in Noida and Lucknow began 'Operation Cover-Up' today.
Most of the day was spent on working out the finer details like which agency will have the honour of covering up the hundreds of elephant and 11 giant Mayawati statues across the state, and what colour plastic should be used. And while meetings through the day failed to resolve, which state agency should be tasked with carrying out the Election Commission's diktat, there seems to be some agreement on the colour of plastic to be used. We were told its pink!
"We are still discussing who will do it," said Arvind Trivedi, the General Manager of the Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nagar Nigam.
After running out of plastic on Sunday, the Noida Authority ordered some 1500 metres of it to avoid further embarrassment. They have, after all, just 48 hours to wrap up two Mayawati statues and 52 giant elephants.
And if you think that's daunting, officials in the state capital Lucknow are all set to climb greater heights. There are nine Mayawati statues, and 25 elephants to cover up. And not just that, counting the innumerable elephant-shaped door handles, Mayawati pillars, the Mayawati chakra, and elephant fountains of different shapes and sizes, they just don't know where to begin this 'elephantine' task.
The elephant motifs and her four-faced statues in the company of Dalit greats are Ms Mayawati's attempt at immortality. For the time being, the Election Commission saw them as hampering a "free and equal" electoral process. Uttar Pradesh votes to elect a new government in seven phases of polling all through next month.
From faraway Mumbai comes a wry tweet on the cover-up. "A covered Mayawati statue will get more attention than an uncovered one. People will say, 'Oh that is Mayawati's statue covered,'" tweeted actor Anupam Kher.
And that seems to be already happening. The footfalls at the memorials have gone up, and the Election Commission's attempt to protect impressionable voters, seems to have proved counter-productive. The people of Uttar Pradesh say a two-month cosmetic veiling will not undo the impressions created in the last four years.
"I think those who want to draw inspiration from it have been doing it for that long, you think they will forget it in the next two months, and the people of UP are smart voters," said Ranjana Shukla, a tourist at the Lucknow memorial.
Ms Mayawati is not running away from this latest political challenge. In fact, she's trying to turn the situation to her advantage by playing victim. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Allahabad High Court, challenging the poll panel's order, pointing out that the elephant is a religious symbol. And for now, it seems her tusker is ready to take the Opposition's bull by the horns.