Stung by Samajwadi Party's rout at the polls, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav gave marching orders to the 36 leaders who are holding various official positions in Minister of State(MoS) rank as part of political appointments. Yadav, however, ruled out his resignation.
SP sources said six leaders from the minority community were among those who got the axe. As the political fallout of the resouding BJP win in UP spread, the sources said some cabinet and state ministers may be also sacked.
Prominent among those who have been removed are Narendra Bhati and Surendra Mohan Agarwal, who lost in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Kanpur seats respectively, RLD turncoat Anuradha Chowdhury, traders' body leader Sandeep Bansal, ex-Agra Mayor Anjula Mahaur, Surabhi Shukla, Ranjana Bajpai, KC Pandey, Kamlesh Pathak, Ashu Malik, Satish Dixit and Manoj Rai.
Those from the minority community included Anis Mansori, Mohammad Abbas, Iqbal Ali, Haji Iqram and Kamruddin, the sources added.
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The ruling party got five out of 80 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, just two years after it got a spectacular mandate in the assembly elections and all the winners are from the Yadav family. SP had 23 MPs in the outgoing house.
BJP and its ally Apna Dal clinched 73 while Congress got two seats.
JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister last Saturday taking responsibility for the party's rout in Bihar.
Mayawati, who reviewed the BSP's performance with office bearers and leaders at a meeting at the party office here, dissolved all the assembly, district and state-level committees of the party, BSP sources said.
The party chief would now be reorganising all the committees after taking stock of the ground situation, the sources said.
BSP would also have new coordinators as the role of some of them has come in for attack because of the bad showing at the hustings, the sources said, adding the coordinators have been accused of misinforming the party chief about the Lok Sabha preparations and the mood of the public.