lucknow babu singh kushwaha was an old bsp hand who turned to the bjp after being dropped by mayawati from being an escort of kanshiram in the late 70s when the latter used to move around in a bicycle to build a party with a strong dalit and backward class base it took kushwaha over two decades to become number two in the party kushwaha joined the bjp after failing to enter congress following his unceremonious exit from the bsp which held him responsible for the nrhm scam stiff opposition within the bjp forced its president nitin gadkari to suspend kushwahas membershipold timers in bsp say that kushwaha was among the mostloyal party workers he was close to bsps founder president kanshiram and later became the personal assistant of his successor mayawati as a trusted backroom man kushwaha always got accommodation next to mayawatis residence while most of kanshirams associates left the party after the reins were passed to mayawati kushwaha continued to serve behenji with dedication he was made the partys national general secretary and became the obc face of the bsphe entered the state legislative council for the first time in may 2000 and was made a minister by mayawati in 2002 when bsp came to power with an absolute majority in 2007 he again became a minister with important portfolios like cooperatives institutional finance mines minerals and family welfare under him he was nominated for the legislative council by mayawati for the second time in 2007 his term is ending in may 2012 things took a downward spiral in april 2011 after the nrhm scam surfaced following the murders of two medical officers he was made to resign taking moral responsibilitykushwahas closeness with a mafiaturnedpolitician created more trouble for him mayawati distanced herself from him though he remained in the party on july 17 when some news channels reported that kushwaha has been expelled bsp promptly issued a statement denying the news in november the high court directed the cbi to probe the implementation of nrhm in the entire state sources said that kushwaha feared that the party might make him a scapegoat hence he wrote a letter to mayawati expressing threat to his life from senior minister naseemuddin siddiqui and two senior officialsthe letter proved to be the breaking point of his relationship with bsp the state government first made him vacate the official bungalow and two days later on november 28 he was expelled from the bsp on charges of hobnobbing with the congress to save himself from the cbi and tarnish mayawatis image mayawati is now promoting lok sabha member dara singh chauhan and state party president swami prasad muarya as the obc face of the bsp kushwahas arrest intriguing bjp arrest of babu singh kushwaha the former family welfare minister and one of the prime suspects in the nrhm scam led to an angry outburst from the saffron camp reacting to the development state bjp president surya pratap shahi said that