Mayawati storms to power in UP, promises a 'crime-free' state

Lucknow, May 11 (UNI) Crafting an unbeatable caste combination that dislodged the Samajwadi Party and made the BJP look a pale shadow of itself, mercurial Mayawati today led her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to a thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh, to end an era of political instability in the crucial state.

The 'Dalit Messiah', who attracted enough support from the upper castes and the minority community as well, led her party to a simple majority in the 403-member state assembly -- its first major electoral battle after the demise of party founder Kanshi Ram -- on its way to forming the first single-party government since 1991.

In her first press interaction after the results came out, the 51-year-old teacher-turned-politician paid fulsome tributes to her political mentor Kanshi Ram and described her victory as a ''triumph of his and Dr Ambedkar's ideology.'' She also acknowledged the contribution of upper castes to her victory and assured all the promises she had made would be fulfilled.

Promising a ''crime-free'' UP, she refused to comment on her predecessor, quipping it would be ''adding insult to injury.'' A shocked Mulayam Singh Yadav conceded defeat and submitted his resignation to Governor T V Rajeshwar.

The BSP Legislature Party will meet tomorrow to formally elect Ms Mayawati as its leader, who will then stake her claim to form a government.

The BJP performed much below its own expectations suffering humiliating defeats in some of its own bastions, once again making the party to realise that it still has a long way to go in retrieving its vote bank in the state.

The party's poor showing is being seen as a personal setback for BJP President Rajnath Singh, who hails from the state, just at a time when he was basking in the glory of its triumph in the assembly elections in Uttarakhand and Punjab and the municipal polls in Mumbai and Delhi and gearing up his cadre for the upcoming Goa assembly polls.

The SP's humiliation was so grave with many of the party's stalwarts losing the polls.

Despite hectic campaigning by party president Sonia Gandhi and her children, the Congress, which obviously was not a key player in the poll arena, just managed to hold on to its feeble vote bank in the state.

The immediate impact of the UP election outcome would be on the upcoming Presidential poll in which the BSP is now bound to play a decisive role in choosing the new occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

While Ms Mayawati welcomed the role of the Election Commission, the outgoing Chief Minister held the body responsible for his defeat, alleging it had acted like a ''party'' itself.

''Like other political parties, the EC, too, became a party in the elections. While the EC encouraged some voters to turn out, it discouraged the SP voter from casting ballots...the EC jumped its mandate. It was not supposed to do so,'' Mr Yadav alleged.

Asserting he was not worried by the BSP supremo's threats to jail him, he said that now since Congress has been wiped out, his party's real fight was with the BSP.

''I will reach out to the people and strengthen my party,'' he said.

Meanwhile, a major controversy broke out after reports that senior Samajwadi Party leader and state Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs minister Mohd Azam Khan had directed his staff to tear and burn several files in his office.

Police has sealed his office while state Director General of Police Girdhari Lal Sharma said he would look into the incident and sent senior police officials to the scene to take stock of the situation.

A personal secretary of the minister told reporters that he had been asked by the minister himself to destroy the files. A pile of documents was lying on the verandah of the office of the cabinet minister in the Assembly building here Eds: Pls pick up suitably from earlier series UNI