Uttar Pradesh outgoing Chief Minister and BSP leader Mayawathi today tendered her resignation to the Governor BL Joshi following her party’s debacle in the state assembly elections.

Governor has accepted her resignation and advised her to continue as care taker chief minister till Samajwadi party (SP) forms the next government.

UP voters have rallied behind the SP led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and abandoned the three other major parties, congress, BJP and BSP. When the counting ended, SP had won 224 seats in the 403 member- assembly as against its strength of 97 seats in the outgoing assembly. The BSP got 80 seats while BJP secured 47, four short of its 2007 strength.

The congress suffered heavily as it was neglected by the voters. The party got 28 seats and was richer by only 6 seats compared to its strength in the outgoing assembly. The party lost all seats in the parliamentary constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareilly represented by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi respectively. (J)