Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said BSP president Mayawati is suffering from "political depression" as she fears defeat of her party's candidates in the general election under way and as a result, she is losing her temper and patience. Sharma claimed Mayawati is showing weakness and her memory is fading.

"All these symptoms are clearly visible in the statements of the BSP supremo," he told PTI in an interview. He said the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo needed a "political health tonic". Mayawati, who is leading the BSP-SP-RLD alliance in UP with Akhilesh Yadav, has regularly hit out at the BJP on Twitter and in campaign rallies, claiming that its government at the Centre is "autocratic" and has resorted to various means to "scare" senior leaders of the opposition parties. She has said the Centre "badly failed" to tackle issues like terrorism and naxalism. Ahead of the second phase of the seven-phase poll, the BSP chief was banned for 48 hours from campaigning by the Election Commission for violating the moral code of conduct.