UP Gov invites Mayawati to form next Govt

Lucknow, May 12: Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeswar today invited Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati to form the next government in the state.

The BSP leader met the Governor at Raj Bhawan this afternoon to stake claim to form the new government. Ms Mayawati also showed her credentials as the leader of BSP's newly-formed Legislature Party, following which she was invited to take oath of office and secrecy.

She would be sworn in as the next chief minister of the most populous state of the country at 1300 hrs tomorrow at Raj Bhawan.

''The Governor has invited me to form the next government,'' she told reporters outside Raj Bhawan here.

Ms Mayawati was earlier today unanimously elected as the leader of the BSP legislature party in Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP supremo's name was proposed by senior leader Indrajit Saroj and seconded by state party chief Lalji Verma and more than 200 newly-elected MLAs.

Ms Mayawati, who met Mr Rajeswar along with party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, told reporters that ''I urged the Governor to invite me to form the next government which was accepted by him immediately.'' Without disclosing the number of ministers to be sworn in with her, the BSP supremo said it was yet to be decided.

Sources, however, maintained that Ms Mayawati will take oath with a limited number of cabinet ministers. ''The cabinet will later be expanded in stages,'' a leader claimed.

Yesterday, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had put in papers as Chief Minister after his Samajwadi Party was defeated by Ms Mayawati's BSP in the state Assembly polls.

Conceding defeat, Mr Yadav had blamed the Election Commission for his defeat by claming that the constitutional body had become a ''party in itself'' in defeating the SP.'' The BSP had romped home to absolute majority by winning 206 of the 402 assembly seats. This is for the first time in the last 14 years that any party has managed absolute majority in the state.

After being sworn in tomorrow as Chief Minister, this would be Ms Mayawati's fourth term in office.

UNI