The Mayawati government was further pushed to wall when state’s former family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, health minister Anant Kumar Mishra and several others were accused of committing financial irregularities in connection with the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission.

Kushwaha’s name also figured in the alleged murder of three government doctors, which led to a huge uproar as the killings were later found to be linked with the Rs 10,000 crore NRHM scam in the state’s Family Welfare and Health Department.

Under mysterious circumstance, chief medical officer, Vinod Kumar Arya was killed in a broad daylight on October 2010. This was followed by the killing of CMO Dr BP Singh outside his home on 2 April. The police under pressure from higher ups booked then Deputy CMO YS Sachan for getting the two doctors killed and sent him to jail.

Then on June 22 last year, Dr Sachan was also found dead inside the jail premises. Initially it was dismissed as a suicide by the police but later it was proved that he was killed.

Under pressure, Mayawati ordered a CBI into the matter. She also moved ahead and sacked Kushwaha and Mishra and later expelled them from the party. Kushwaha, a two-time MLC, again courted controversy when it was reported that he was making inroads into Congress. However, his efforts were scuttled by Rahul Gandhi. In an interesting turn of events, the BJP, eyeing the OBC vote bank, later inducted him into the party and decided to field him as its candidate in the coming Assembly polls.

After joining BJP, Kushwaha created a stir by claiming threat to his life from BSP colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui, UP Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary (Home). BSP, however, hit back and accused him of indulging in anti-party activities.

The induction of corruption-accused Kushwaha caused huge embarrassment to the BJP top brass as the move was opposed by its prominent leaders. Senior leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi expressed their displeasure against Kushwaha’s induction and said that the decision had “dented” the anti-corruption agenda of the saffron party.

With dissent growing within its ranks, BJP later put Kushwaha’s membership on hold and announced that it would neither field him as a candidate nor make him one of its star campaigners in the coming Assembly elections.