Lucknow, June 19: Samajwadi Party (SP) today accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of using "money and police influence" to engineer defections in other parties to stay in power. "SP MLA Mashood Khan, who had raised a banner of revolt against the party leadership, was coerced into supporting the BSP," SP leader Azam Khan told a news conference here. Claiming that Mashood was alone and no other SP MLA was with him, he rejected possibilities of a split in the party's rank. It was the BSP which should be "afraid of defection", Khan, who is also the leader of the opposition in Vidhan Sabha, said and warned the chief minister that she would have to "bear a heavy cost for her misdeeds."

He said the SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav did not need a certificate from anyone to prove his secular credentials.

Khan alleged that Mayawati had spent crores of rupees on her recent foreign tour but failed to bring in any investment to the state. Bureau Report