Ministers' sacking a poll gimmick by Mayawati, won't work:Cong

New Delhi/Lucknow, Dec 31 (PTI) Congress today hit out at UP Chief Minister Mayawati for the recent sacking of her ministers terming it an election "drama" and predicting that her reign will crumble like the council of ministers there. "Such an attempt to fool the people won't succeed. Voters are going to give a resounding slap (to BSP). If the ministers were corrupt why did she appoint them in first place and then retained them till the last? "She thought of removing them only days before elections. Such gimmicks do not work. It is clear that like her council of ministers has crumbled, her five-year rule is also crumbling and she is not going to come back to power," AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here. Terming the sacking of ministers as "drama", the UP Congress also said the clean-up act by the Chief Minister was nothing but an attempt to salvage her image ahead of the assembly election. "She has been dismissing ministers blaming them for all the ills facing her government. This is nothing but an attempt to salvage her image ahead of the assembly election," UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said. She said this would have no impact at the hustings as people had understood the gameplan of Mayawati who continued with these ministers during most part of her tenure. Since the announcement of the Assembly elections on December 24, Mayawati has sacked 10 ministers. Four BSP ministers Fateh Bahadur Singh, Sadal Prasad, Anis Ahmed Khan aka Phool Babu and Shahjul Islam Ansari were sacked yesterday to "prevent them from misusing their posts in the coming elections".