The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mayawati expands U.P. Cabinet

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Thursday, Oct 18, 2007
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New Delhi

Mayawati expands U.P. Cabinet

Special Correspondent

Six new Ministers, including four of Cabinet rank, inducted

Photo: Subir Roy

“yours truly”: A newly sworn-in Minister bows down at the feet of Chief Minister Mayawati while Governor T.V. Rajeshwar looks on at Raj Bhavan in Lucknow on Wednesday.

LUCKNOW: With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly session scheduled to begin on October 30, Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday expanded her Cabinet by inducting six new Ministers, including four of Cabinet rank. Besides, three Ministers of State (independent charge) and a Minister of State were elevated as Cabinet Ministers.

With the latest expansion, the size of the Mayawati Ministry has gone up to 53. The number of Cabinet Ministers has increased to 27.

While first-timers Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi , Kamla Kant Gautam, Chandradev Ram Yadav and Ashok Kumar have been inducted as Cabinet Ministers, Bhagwati Prasad Sagar and Jaiveer Singh have been designated Ministers of State with independent charge.

Mr. Nandi was instrumental in defeating the former Bharatiya Janata Party president and former Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Kesari Nath Tripathi from Allahabad South in the last UP Assembly elections. The three other Cabinet Ministers have been rewarded for their loyalty to the Chief Minister and to the cause of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Of the two Ministers of State (independent charge), Jaiveer Singh had been a Minister in the Mulayam Singh regime. He was among the first Samajwadi Party ministers who pledged their loyalty to Ms. Mayawati in 2006 and later returned to the BSP fold. Mr. Singh subsequently lost his membership of the last Vidhan Sabha following a petition moved by the Samajwadi Party. He was a member of the Loktantrik Bahujan Dal, the breakaway faction of the BSP.

The three Ministers of State with independent charge who have been elevated to Cabinet rank are Badshah Singh, MoS for Small Industries and Export Promotion; Rangannath Mishra, MoS for Rural Engineering Services; and Anant Kumar alias Antu Misra, MoS for Medical and Health. State Minister for Agriculture, Foreign Trade and Agri Exports, Abdul Mannan, has also been made Cabinet Minister.

Antu Misra, a close relative of Satish Chandra Misra, the Minister attached to the Chief Minister, was elected from Farrukhabad in an Assembly by-election defeating Vijay Singh of the Congress. He was not an MLA when he was made the Minister after Ms. Mayawati came to power in May this year. Mr. Misra had lost the Assembly elections.

Among those who have missed the bus are Kazim Ali Khan and Haji Yaqub Qureishi. They were in the Bahujan Samaj Party when Ms. Mayawati became Chief Minister for the third time in May 2002, but switched their loyalties to Mr. Mulayam Singh through the Loktantrik Bahujan Dal route when the latter came to power in August 2003. They returned to the BSP when Ms. Mayawati became the Chief Minister in May this year. Mr. Khan, who was elected from Swar Tanda on Samajwadi Party ticket in the May Assembly polls, resigned his seat and won the by-election from the same constituency on BSP ticket.

Son of former Congress MP from Rampur, Noor Bano, Khan’s name was being mentioned in the corridors of power on the eve of the expansion as a possible Cabinet Minister.

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