Maya polevaults over opponents; gets absolute majority in UP

Lucknow, May 11 (UNI) Polevaulting over her political opponents, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati today snared a magnificent victory by winning an absolute majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, bringing to an end the 14-year-old era of coalition politics in the most populous state of the country.

Soon after the announcement of the poll results declared so far in which her party cornered 202 out of 396 seats, Mayawati, in a news conference, declared that ''all irregularities committed during outgoing Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's regime would be looked into and anyone, if found guilty, would not be spared.'' She also announced that a probe would be ordered into the destruction of files by the staff of senior minister Mohd Azam Khan.

She will also convene a Legislature party meeting here tomorrow.

She attributed the landslide in the polls to the upper castes, whom it allotted 138 tickets, and Dalits and thanked them profusely for the party's great showing in the hustings.

In the day that was replete with political activity, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, conceding defeat, submitted his resignation to Governor T V Rajeswar, and the BJP, which was reduced to a poor third, decided to sit in the Opposition.

The Governor accepted the resignation of Mr Yadav and asked him to continue in office till an alternative arrangement was made.

In his first reaction after conceding defeat, the SP supremo sent all his guns blazing and assailed the Election Commission, describing the constitutional body's stringent measures ''an attempt to dislodge his government''.

Meanwhile, the Congress, which in a last-ditch attempt to shore up its political fortunes by harnessing Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, could not regain its lost moorings in the state that sends the largest number of members to the Lok Sabha. Its ploy to play the Rahul card came a cropper with the party ended up having an egg on its face. The party, however, indicated to extend outside support to the BSP, a move which seems a mere formality.

In a major climbdown, the ruling Samajwadi Party plunged to this low from the tally of 143 in the 2002 polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which wanted to repeat its performance in Uttarakhand, Punjab and Delhi polls, was the biggest loser in this assembly polls, dishing out its worst-ever performance in the last two decades. ''...Yes, the results are disppointing for us. We are down but not out and will strike back with a vengeance,'' stated party national general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The BSP, which reached the magic figure of 202 in the assembly of 403 as the last results came in, will form the first Dalit government in the history of independent India. The 51-year-old Dalit leader led three governments in the past but on the first occasion it was a coalition one with the SP, and on second, it functioned in tandem with the BJP.

Independents and others accounted for 23 seats in today's results.

The election to the Khaga assembly constitueny was countermanded following the death of the Congress candidate in a road accident.

The election there has been deferred till May 24.

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