Lucknow:
The Akhilesh Yadav government is constructing a flyover, 50 metres away from BSP chief Mayawati's palatial mansion on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Lucknow. Ms Mayawati is not amused.
On the first day of construction today, bulldozers and heavy machinery blocked the main approach to her Rs-100 crore fortress-like residence and the BSP cried foul alleging that this is a plan of the ruling Samajwadi Party to trouble them.
The SP government says Lucknow needs the flyover to ease traffic congestion during rush hour as a small railway overbridge that runs parallel to the proposed structure has massive jams daily.
The BSP is already smarting at the government's recent decision to rent out memorials and parks built during the Mayawati regime for weddings and cultural events.
It has accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of insulting the Dalit icons in whose memory the controversial memorials have been built.
The 42-year-old chief minister argues that this will earn money for the exchequer and "a name" for the memorials.
When the flyover project was announced earlier this year, the BSP had vowed to take revenge.
Amused people who have ringside seats to the political pow-wow between the parties of Mr Yadav and Ms Mayawati, who was his predecessor, point out that the CM's residence on Vikramaditya Marg, too, is very close to a railway crossing and so a potential spot for a flyover. He might well be paid in the same coin if the BSP comes back to power.