Lucknow, Oct 29  The Congress on Thursday termed the action of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in sacking eight of his ministers as an action that was "too little, too late".

Reacting to the cabinet shake-up, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Nirmal Khatri said the alleged 'clean-up act' of Yadav was not going to make much of a difference in governance as the corrupt were still very much within the government.

"Whatever tricks this discredited government may try but the reality is that the people will boot them out in the 2017 state assembly elections for their misgovernance, poor law and order and failure to maintain communal harmony in Uttar Pradesh," the Congress leader said.

"The Samajwadi Party (SP) government may try to show that they are trying to set their house in order but the people of the state are not going to be fooled by such superficial actions," Khatri said in a statement.

He added that the people know the truth and that the action appeared to be taken to balance the delicate caste equation in the cabinet before the 2017 assembly elections.