Lucknow:
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati sacked four ministers on Sunday.
In a decision ratified by state Governor BL Joshi - Rakesh Dhar Tripathi, Minister for Higher Education, Rajpal Tyagi, Agriculture & Rural Development Minister, Avdhesh Kumar Verma the Minister for Backward Welfare and Hari Om, Minister for Home guards were dropped from the UP cabinet.
The decision to remove these ministers comes close on the heels of a scathing indictment of these ministers soon by Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta.
Rakesh Dhar Tripathi has been indicted for corruption. Besides facing a slew of corruption charges, Hari Om, the Home Guards Minister has been booked for kidnapping. And the CBI is investigating the role of Rajpal Tyagi for his alleged role in a fake encounter.
The minister's portfolios have been reallocated between three senior ministers in her cabinet. The ministers are Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who is now the Minister for Higher Education. Indrajit Saroj is now the Minister for Backward Welfare. Laxmi Narayan is now the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development. The Minister for Home Guards has not been assigned so far.
Mayawati's clean-up act comes a day after the poll schedule for Uttar Pradesh was announced by the Election Commission. The politically-sensitive state will witness seven phases of polling from February 4 to February 28.
In the run up to the polls, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has been targeted continuously by Congress' Rahul Gandhi over the issue of corruption.