Maya govt recommends dissolution of state assembly

In a late night development, chief minister Mayawati reportedly took the decision to go for dissolution of the 15th Vidhan Sabha once the assembly election results are announced on March 6. The Cabinet by circulation approved the chief minister's decision, highly placed sources said on Sunday. Under the constitution, the cabinet can send a recommendation for House dissolution to the governor for assent.

After the last phase of polling on March 3, most of the exit polls indicated the BSP was on its way out of power. But the party rubbished the surveys at a meeting that the chief minister called here on Sunday. Ministers and the party’s election coordinators participated in the meeting under Mayawati’s leadership.

Sources said the chief minister told the ministers and office bearers that the exit polls, which showed that BSP was in for a big defeat, were fake and a figment of imagination. “The surveys were carried out on the direction of the rival political parties to demean BSP and to create confusion among the public,” she said.

“The BSP will regain power again,” Mayawati said and added, “the work done by the BSP government was appreciated by the common man. The people voted for the BSP in the assembly election and we are going to form a government on our own.”

The chief minister also said, “after getting the victory certificate from the district election officer on March 6, all the party MLAs would come to the state unit office.” The party office bearers were directed to ensure this.

A meeting of the BSP legislators would be held on March 7 to discuss the future course of action, she added.

A minister told HT the chief minister had assured them that the MLAs with a clean image or those who have been party cadres would be made ministers. Tainted MLAs would have no place in the new cabinet, she is reported to have said.

State BSP unit president Swami Prasad Maurya told HT, “the survey and exit polls carried out by various channels would fall flat on Tuesday when the counting of votes begins. The BSP has increased its base in five years. The social engineering formula would work again. Beni Prasad Verma’s statement that the Congress would form a government in alliance with the BSP indicates demoralisation in the Congress camp. The BSP will form a government with a majority of its own and not go for a post-poll alliance with anyone,” he said.