Lucknow, March 17 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Wednesday accepted another garland of currency notes, even as a row sparked off by a similar show of extragavance two days ago refused to fade away.

Stated to have been made with neatly folded Rs.500 and Rs.100 notes, the Rs.18 lakh worth of garland was gifted to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president at a function here Wednesday.

Even as Mayawati received the garland, the BSP's Karnataka secretary, V.N. Sharma, who had revealed that the Monday garland was made of 1,000 donomination currency notes, was sacked.

Sharma was fired ostensibly for 'indiscipline', the sack order issued in Mysore.

A furious Sharma told mediapersons: 'The arbitrary manner in which I have been penalized shows total absence of democracy within the BSP.'

Despite unending criticism of Mayawati's love for 'currency garlands', the BSP remained defiant.

Unlike Monday, when efforts were made by BSP functionaries to conceal that the garland was made of currency notes, the party gloated about the gift Wednesday.

Mayawati's cabinet minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui declared: 'This garland has been made with currency notes worth Rs.18 lakhs, contributed by party workers from Uttar Pradesh's 18 divisions. The party raised the money.'

Another BSP MP justified the 'currency garland', comparing it to the money people donate to temples. He said people were raising money for India's 'future prime minister'.

Wednesday's 'garland ceremony' took place at a meeting of party MPs and legislators at the BSP state headquarters.

The Monday garland was presented to Mayawati at a huge rally held in Lucknow to mark 25 years of the BSP, which now rules Uttar Pradesh on its own.

Siddiqui said the second garland was in response to the storm kicked up by the opposition over the Monday garland.

The opposition refused to tone down the attacks on Mayawati.

Samajwadi Party spokesman Mohan Singh said Mayawati's decision to accept wads of currency notes in the form of a garland was detestable.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was not worried about Dalits 'but about Daulat (money)'.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati appeared to be in a race 'to become the richest corrupt woman' in the country.