Sacking triggers panic among UP ministers

 Sudden sacking of two of their senior colleagues has triggered panic among Uttar Pradesh ministers.  It has also clearly indicated that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will not show any leniency to even senior leaders on the question of ‘performance’.

“Every minister will have to perform. He must cooperate wholeheartedly with the official party nominee in the Lok Sabha polls. His continuance in the ministry will depend on the outcome of the candidate’s performance in constituency concerned,” said a senior SP leader here.

Mulayam had also recently said the ministers will face their first tests in the Lok Sabha polls.

“If the party LS nominees lose, you (ministers) will neither remain ministers nor will get Assembly tickets,” the party supremo had warned.

He had expressed serious displeasure with Akhilesh Yadav government and asked the ministers to mend their ways or be ready to face the consequences.

The Samajwadi Party supremo had told the ministers to either ‘perform or perish’.
He said he will under no circumstances tolerate ‘non-performing’ ministers and they will have to go.

“I know about every one (minister). I have all the information. You (minister) must mend your ways or should be ready to face the consequences,” he warned.

The leader said the sacking was aimed at ‘curbing the widespread resentment among the party leaders over selection

of nominees for the LS elections’.

“Mulayam wants to win as many seats as possible from UP this time as he feels that he stands a chance of making it to the top,” he added.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had on Sunday sacked the Minister for Agriculture Anand Singh and Minister of State for Stamp Manoj Paras for ‘anti-party activities’.
Paras, who faces rape charges, was reportedly opposed to the official party nominee from Bareilly.

There was widespread resentment within the SP over distribution of tickets for the Lok Sabha elections and the party, which had taken a lead in releasing its list of nominees for almost all the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, had to drop several nominees and replaced them with fresh faces.

The anger had spilled on to the streets when the incensed supporters of the SP leaders, who were dropped after being given the ticket, held demonstrations before the party’s headquarters.

Supporters of senior leader Daroga Prasad Saroj, who had been nominated from Lalganj seat but was later dropped, raised anti-party slogans during the protest.

The SP had replaced Saroj with Bechai.

Similar resentment prevailed over the SP nominee from Ghazipur seat Shivkanya, the wife of the tainted former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Babu Singh Kuahswaha, who is the main accused in the multi-crore NRHM scam.