Ahead of UP polls, Mayawati sacks two more ministers

In a surprise move, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati sacked two more of her ministers on Wednesday evening, taking the number of dropped ministers over the past two months to six.

According to ruling Bahujan Samaj Party spokesman, "Those dropped from the council of ministers were  Akbar Hussain, the minister of state (independent charge) for Alternative Sources of Energy and Yashpal Singh, minister of state for Science and Technology."

Asked what prompted the chief minister to take the extreme stem, he said, "Both ministers had already been denied party ticket for the 2012 state assembly election after which they had stopped taking interest in the interest of the party, so the chief minister decided to take action against them."

Informed sources however claimed that Hussain and Singh were shown the door by Mayawati because they were alleged to be hobnobbing with rival political parties ever since they were denied party tickets. Both the dropped ministers were however not available for comment.

Earlier, Mayawati had fired four ministers after they were indicted by the state Lok Ayukta for their involvement in financial bungling and other irregularities.