Badal Aide Dumps Akali Dal, Joins Akhilesh Yadav’s Government As Minister

In all, 21 ministers, together with those that have been promoted, took oath of workplace on the Raj Bhavan right here.

Arvind Singh Gope from MoS independent charge and MoS Kamal Akhtar, Vinod Singh alias Pandit Singh whose name was doing round for being sacked have been elevated as cabinet minister.

This is the sixth Cabinet reshuffle after SP stormed to power in 2012 with a thumping majority and is apparently Akhilesh’s attempt to put his stamp on the 43-month-old government which was seen to be in the shadow of the old guard.

The state authorities had earlier sacked eight ministers – 5 cabinet ministers and three ministers of state (MoS) – and stripped 9 others of their portfolios.

Sources in the chief minister’s office told TOI that the ruling Samajwadi Party is most likely to hire for their poll campaign, Austin, who has been leading Democratic Party campaign since 1968, propelling successfully Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

UP governor Ram Naik is slated to administer oath to the new ministers tomorrow morning at 1030 hours at the Gandhi Sabhagar in the Rajbhawan.

None of the axed ministers were rehabilitated in today’s exercise though a few of them had approached party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The new faces in the ministry are Pawan Pandey (back after a political sabbatical), Laxmikant alias Pappu Nishad, Sayeeda Shadab Fatima (the second woman minister), Shailendra Yadav, Radhe Shyam Singh, Onkar Singh Yadav, Sudhir Kumar Rawat, Madan Chauhan, Sahab Singh Saini, Hemraj Verma and Banshidhar Baudh.

MoS Hemraj Verma was not present at the oath-taking ceremony.

Balwant Singh Ramoowalia is a former union minister and a long-term aide of Parkash Singh Badal.

Six MoS independent charge includes Reyaz Ahmed, Fareed Mahfooz Kidwai, Moolchandra Chauhan, Ram Sakal Gurjar, Nitin Agarwal and Yasir Shah.