The Hindu : Other States / Uttar Pradesh News : Vaqar Ahmad joins Cabinet

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Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

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Vaqar Ahmad joins Cabinet

LUCKNOW, AUG. 3. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, today effected a minor expansion of his Ministry by inducting the former Deputy Speaker in the Assembly, Vaqar Ahmad Shah, as a cabinet minister.

The Governor, T. V. Rajeshwar, administered the oath to Mr Shah at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhawan here this morning in presence of the Chief Minister, several Ministers and other leaders. The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president, Jagdambika Pal, also attended the swearing in.

With this expansion, the number of Ministers in the SP-led coalition in the State has gone up to 60. This is the third expansion, the Chief Minister has effected in almost a year-long tenure. The Government will complete a year on August 29. Mr Shah had resigned as the deputy speaker on July 26 to enable an Opposition member to be elected to the post. On July 30, BJP's Rajesh Agarwal was elected as the Deputy Speaker.

On July 16, the Chief Minister inducted POTA accused Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in the Cabinet.

On July 2, 33 ministers, including 29 minister of state had resigned to allow the Chief Minister to downsize the Ministry as per the constitutional requirement. The State is allowed to have a maximum of 61 Ministers, which is 15 per cent of the State Assembly's strength.

UP Council chairman

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Sukhram Singh Yadav was today declared elected as the ninth Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (LC).

Mr Yadav is the first ``full-time'' chairman of the House in the last four years and filed his nominations for the post yesterday as a consensus candidate.

While Mr Yadav is the ninth elected chairman of the Upper House, there had been seven other pro-tem chairmen and four officiating chairmen of the LC since Independence.

Soon after Mr Yadav was declared elected by the pro-tem Speaker, Manvendra Singh, members welcomed him by thumping desks. The Chief Minister, the Leader of the House, Ahmed Hasan (SP), and the Leader of the Opposition, Nepal Singh (BJP), escorted him to the Chair.

Welcoming the unopposed election of Mr Sukhram Singh, the Chief Minister said his Government had followed the democratic traditions of the House by holding an election.

Mr Yadav rued that there had been no elected chairman of the Upper House for the past several years. He also recalled the contribution of Mr Sukhram in student politics and his association with the SP as an active politician and legislator. -- UNI

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Vaqar Ahmad joins Cabinet