BSP leaders facing corruption and criminal charges are finding safe haven in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just before the UP elections. This became evident when the party welcomed in its fold two sacked BSP ministers — Babu Singh Kushwaha and Badshah Singh — at a function in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Both leaders are facing corruption and criminal charges and were sacked by the Mayawati government recently. Kushwaha was even accused of being involved in the conspiracy to murder jailed Lucknow deputy chief medical officer Dr YS Sachan. Dr Sachan’s body with deep gashes was found inside the Lucknow jail under mysterious circumstances in June last year.

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Though the police tried to hush up the case by calling it a suicide, the Allahabad high court handed it over to the CBI for further investigation. Sachan’s mysterious death was seen as a sequel to a series of crimes (including sensational murders of two CMOs in Lucknow) conducted by top BSP politicians in the state to cover up misappropriation in the Rs 3,000 crore funds allocated for national rural health mission (NRHM) programme. Kushwaha, former family welfare minister in the Mayawati government, was suspected to be kingpin of the racket. Similarly, Badshah Singh, former labour minister, had earned notoriety by his association with criminals and mafia in the Bundelkhand region.

BJP sources in UP admitted that the induction of both the ministers came as a surprise for the party leadership. Kushwaha and Singh were believed to be inducted by Vinay Katiyar and BJP’s state president Surya Pratap Sahi. Though BJP national president Nitin Gadkari avoided playing a direct role in the event, both the leaders are learnt to have got his blessings. After this controversial inductions, BJP leaders suspect that decks are also cleared to include Dhananjay Singh, a BSP MP of Jaunpur, who was sacked by Mayawati on criminal charges, in the party-fold.

What appears to be an interesting political development is the fact that the recent induction has vertically divided the state unit leadership in many factions with each gunning for the other. A senior leader said that it would not only be untenable but also ridiculous now for the BJP to attack Mayawati on the charges of corruption and criminalisation.

However, the BJP’s fondness for corrupt and criminals is nothing new. In the second stint of the Kalyan Singh regime, the party roped in all gangsters-turned-MLAs of the state and inducted them into the cabinet in the late nineties.

Given the party’s recent announcement of having launched a series of high-profile campaigns against corruption in the country, the induction of tainted politicians within the saffron fold in UP is seen as a contradiction of the party’s avowed objectives.