Lucknow, Aug 27 - In a surprise move, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Thursday told her partymen to stop collecting funds for her birthday celebrations with immediate effect.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) boss had made it a practice to observe her birthday - Jan 15 - with much fanfare for which huge collections were made well in advance. She was born in 1956.

Her birthday was significantly described as 'arthik sahyog diwas (economic support day)'.

Addressing the concluding session of her two-day party national executive meet, that drew BSP leaders from different parts of the country, she stated here Thursday evening, 'The practice of fund collection on my birthday is being done away with and there should be no raising of funds from my next birthday.'

The decision is understood to have been prompted following widespread criticism of the practice, especially after the murder of PWD engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta in Auraiya on Dec 24 last year. Gupta was killed allegedly by a BSP MLA because he refused to contribute to the birthday fund.