Mayavati being presented the garland made of currency notes in Lucknow on Monday. (PTI)

Lucknow, March 16: Either side of the few seconds Mayavati wore it, the money garland took a whole week to make and 12 hours to take apart.

Sixteen people toiled the whole evening and night yesterday extricating the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in complete secrecy and with painstaking care to avoid damaging the notes, Bahujan Samaj Party sources said.

The folded and crumpled notes were then arranged in stacks, on which weights were placed to press them back into shape. Finally, the notes were passed through counting machines so that not one was left unaccounted for.

“Besides, the pressure of the counting machine also helped restore the shape of the notes,” a BSP source said.

“After all, we couldn’t possibly have done any transactions with the folded notes — everyone would have asked ‘are these the notes from the garland’ and that would have been most embarrassing.”

The money will be deposited in a bank account, party insiders said, without elaborating.

The Money Mala had been spirited away from the rally venue within a minute after it was placed on Mayavati’s shoulders during the BSP’s 25-year celebrations yesterday. It was put on a Tempo and driven straight to the chief minister’s home in Mall Road.

Soon, however, realising that the fragrance-less mala was about to raise a political stink, party seniors ordered it taken apart at once.

The garland was transferred to the party headquarters a stone’s throw away, where a dozen trusted aides --- members of Mayavati’s “finance committee” ----- set to work with four “flower artisans” from Bangalore.

It was these four who had built the Money Mala after being brought to Lucknow last week from Karnataka, a land of temples and flower markets known for their exquisite garlands.

“All four are employees of a garland-making company based in the Koramangale area of Bangalore. They are skilled in weaving garlands from flowers as well as paper,” a BSP source said.

The company supplies garlands to the Kannada film industry, exports to the West and even advertises over the Internet.

The design for Mayavati’s garland was apparently inspired by the giant paper garlands of Thailand, whose style and technique is taught to trainees by the flower artisans of Bangalore.

“First, a paper model of the garland was made and shown to party leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha. After they cleared the form and size, the money garland was made,” a party worker said.

The experts played a trick to make it look like a flower garland. “They cleverly coloured the edges of the notes red to give the garland a strange tinge,” the source said.

It fooled many at first --- allowing some BSP leaders to claim the garland was made of rare flowers from a Mysore forest ---- before TV close-ups revealed the truth.

BSP leaders said the garland was crafted behind closed doors, so they didn’t know if the notes had been sewn together. “The artisans asked for large quantities of fine cotton thread,” one recalled.

One source, however, suggested the thread was used to tie up the notes. “It’s done in such a smart way that if you snap the thread in the middle, the notes come loose and it becomes that much easier to separate them.”

Party leaders swore the garland was worth just Rs 21 lakh. If an equal number of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes were used, the total number would be 2,800.

Tax scan

Income-tax officials in Lucknow have obtained videotapes of the rally as part of “a routine exercise by our investigation department”.

“We will compare our estimate of the expenses with the one furnished by the BSP. If they don’t match, a notice will be sent to the party,” a senior tax official said.