Maya says no to two more ministers

Although there has been no official announcement,party sources said at least 85 MLAs have been axed so far and the number may finally go up to about 150,making it almost 75 per cent of the partys 200-odd legislators.

They said the exercise has been undertaken on the basis of the feedback collected by party co-ordinators from the field. The assessment is that there is an anti-incumbency factor against the state government and voters are unhappy with the BSP MLAs in most constituencies, a BSP leader said.

Party chief Mayawatis decision has surprised most of the MLAs who have been axed,as many of them had been given the go-ahead and asked to start preparing for elections. Also,Mayawati had stated repeatedly at party meetings that no sitting MLA would be dropped,unless his or her constituency had undergone major changes in the delimitation.

It is nothing but betrayal. The party leadership kept us in dark until the last moment, said one of the MLAs.

The dropping of Ram Achal Rajbhar from the list of candidates has surprised many in the party. He was elected to the Assembly for the fourth consecutive term in the 2007 elections and he is one of the BSPs prominent faces in eastern UP. He has also served as party coordinator in Uttarakhand. He is one of the very few BSP leaders who got a ministerial berth in all four governments which Mayawati headed in the state.

Although the party has decided to field his son Sanjay Rajbhar from Akbarpur seat in Ambedkarnagar district,the denial of ticket to someone like Ram Achal Rajbhar shows the depth of the leaderships worries to fight the anti-incumbency factor,a party leader said.

Other sitting MLAs denied ticket include Pashupati Nath Rai from Dildar Nagar in Ghazipur district,Ram Shiromani Sharma from Birapur in Pratapgarh,O P Singh from Jaisinghpur in Sultanpur,Aditya Pandey from Jahanabad in Fatehpur.