UP CM Akhilesh reshuffles cabinet, sacks 8 ministers
Ahead of a planned revamp of his cabinet on October 31, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, on the recommendation of CM Akhilesh Yadav, dismissed eight ministers including five Cabinet ministers and three state ministers. Further, nine ministers have been divested of their portfolios. Akhilesh hinted at the expansion of the council of ministers after the Bihar assembly elections scheduled to end next month.
Akhilesh Yadav is the son of former UP CM and Samajwadi party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akhilesh was 27 when he first entered the Lok Sabha, winning from Kannauj in 2000 and retained his seat in the 2004 and 2009 general elections. Following SP's unanimous win in the 2012 State Assembly elections, Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
In a major rejig, Akhilesh Yadav sacked a junior minister and changed the portfolios of 11 ministers including nine of cabinet rank. The only minister to be sacked was Tej Narain Pandey, a young leader believed to be a close confidant of Akhilesh. Pandey was allegedly sacked after his aides attacked a police party for "falsely implicating" a SP leader in a criminal incident.
Uttar Pradesh has a maximum permissible strength of 60 for its council of ministers. Currently, there are 26 cabinet ministers, including the chief minister, 24 ministers of state, and four ministers of state with independent charge.
Akhilesh Yadav met UP governor Ram Naik to discuss an impending cabinet reshuffle. According to sources, the expansion is likely have a clear stamp of Akhilesh, who is all set to be the face of the party and the government in the 2017 assembly elections. " It would be a serious exercise , not a cosmetic one," said a senior functionary of the party.
The dropped council of ministers include: Cabinet ministers- Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, Ambika Chaudhary, Shiv Kumar Beria, Narad Rai and Shivakant Ojha and Ministers of State- Alok Kumar Shakya, Yogesh Pratap Singh and Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar.
