SP activists collect Rs 52 for Mayawati's 52nd birthday

Lucknow, Jan 14: The Opposition Samajwadi Party today used a novel way to protest the alleged ''misrule'' of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) by collecting Rs 52 as 'bhiksha' to mark the 52nd birthday of Chief Minister Mayawati tomorrow.

Activists of SP's youth brigade took out a march from Raj Bhawan to the nearby Vidhan Bhawan building where they sought donations from passersby. Later, they got a banker's cheque made from the local PNB branch in the name of Ms Mayawati.

Women activists used their shawls to collect the donations to protest the alleged ''misrule'' of the ruling party. ''She collects money from her MLAs and MPs on her birthday in the name of strengthening the party. Therefore, we decided to collect donations for her...we would try to hand over the cheque to the CM tomorrow on her birthday,'' they said.

The SP workers were later placed under arrest by policemen deployed there.

Meanwhile, state unit working president of SP Shivpal Singh Yadav alleged here in the past eight months of the BSP rule, the government had not concentrated on development. ''Its only aim has been to make money for politicians and officials...The CM has been making 'benami' investments in the name of new economic policy,'' he alaimed.

Yadav claimed that while the growth rate during the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav regime was 10 per cent, it had plummeted to an all time low during the present regime.

UNI