Lucknow: Continuing her efforts to refurbish her image, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday sacked two more ministers and also dropped them as party candidates for the Assembly elections. Akabar Hussain was Minister of State for Alternative Sources of Energy with independent charge while Yashpal Singh was Minister of State for Science and Technology.
On December 25, she had sacked her four ministers — Rangnath Mishra, Awadhesh Verma, Rajpal Tyagi and Hari Om — and also denied them ticket to contest the Assembly elections.
Sources said Akabar Hussain is already in touch with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to contest the election from his Kundarki seat in Moradabad district. A fifth-time MLA, Akabar Hussain was first elected to the Assembly in 1977 as a nominee of the then Janata Party. In 1980, he was elected to the state Assembly as Janata Dal(S), headed by veteran socialist Raj Narain. Later, he joined the Janata Dal and contested as its nominee in 1991 and 1996. He joined the BSP after wining polls in 2007.
Yashpal Singh, who represents Seyora seat of Bijnore district, was elected to the state Assembly for the first time on a BSP ticket in 2007. The party has now decided to field former BJP MLA V P Singh from this seat, it is learnt.
The BSP has already denied ticket to more than 70 MLAs, but there has been no formal announcement.
Mayawati, who is also party president, has called a meeting of party’s coordinators of western UP on Thursday to discuss the names of candidates. She has already cleared her party candidates for eastern UP. Sources in the BSP said the party has decided to field a good number of Muslim candidates in western UP and Mayawati would discuss every name during her one-to-one meeting with the coordinators.
“She is worried over the party’s prospects in western UP after the formation of the alliance between the Congress and the RLD,” a party leader said.
The BSP is likely to release its final list of candidates in the first week of January. After that, Mayawati would first undertake a tour of Punjab and Uttarakhand for campaigning before concentrating on UP.
