Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav formally took over the reins of UP on Thursday when he was sworn in as chief minister along with a team of 47 ministers, most of them old Mulayam Singh Yadav loyalists, among them the controversial Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya who has been booked under POTA and has several cases pending against him.
As the team didn’t quite inspire confidence in his promise of providing clean politics in UP, many wondered whether Akhilesh has had a free hand in picking his ministry. Only one member of the socalled ‘Team Akhilesh’ – IIM-Ahmedabad’s former professor Abhishek Mishra – has been picked as a minister of state.
The size of the ministry is small compared to Mulayam’s jumbo-sized 98-member cabinet, but it is still much larger than initial estimates as Akhilesh himself had talked about a small team. Doubts were being raised on the Samajwadi Party’s intentions to check crime and criminals as 28 out of 47 ministers have criminal cases against them, even though a number of these cases could be political in nature.
At a ceremony at the La Martiniere school grounds, 19 cabinet ministers were inducted and 28 ministers of state. The ceremony was attended by several political bigwigs, among them Union cabinet minister Pawan Bansal and veteran Congress leader Motilal Vora. There were also Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury of CPM and A B Bardhan of CPI which made political pundits wonder whether Mulayam was cosying up to the Left for the possible formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP political front.
While the SP was successful in shedding its anti-English, anti-computer image under Akhilesh during the election campaign, he will still have to explain the inclusion of the likes of Raja Bhaiya and Mahmoob Ali, who faces 15 criminal cases. Akhilesh later defended Raja Bhaiya’s inclusion saying he had been a minister before. Akhilesh tries to do a balancing act
After the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, Akhilesh Yadav went to the CM office at the secretariat annexe to take charge and later addressed a news conference at 5, Kalidas Marg –official residence of the UP CM – where he promised to implement all the promises made in the party manifesto. At his first cabinet meeting it was decided that all girl students passing Class X would be given laptops.
This done, the Mulayam Singh family, including Akhilesh and his wife Dimple and Shivpal Yadav, headed for Sahara Sheher for a lunch hosted by Sahara chief Subrata Roy. The lunch was also attended by the visiting Left leaders and other political and business notables, including Anil Ambani. Jaya Bachchan and Zayed Khan.
At one level, Akhilesh’s team has been picked with care – almost all castes and communities have found representation. Although the 18% job quota for Muslims promised by SP is yet to materialize, the party has given 20% ministerial berths to the community by inducting 10 ministers – threecabinet and seven ministers of state. The maximum number of Cabinet ministers are Yadavs (6), followed by five Thakurs, three Brahmins, and two Dalits.
While L K Advani didn’t turn up for the swearing in, leaving Kalraj Mishra as the sole BJP representative, the presence of BSP leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Swami Prasad Maurya was a surprise. The unexpected arrival of BSP leaders evoked a warm welcome as senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav hugged them and later escorted the two to meet Mulayam.
As the team didn’t quite inspire confidence in his promise of providing clean politics in UP, many wondered whether Akhilesh has had a free hand in picking his ministry. Only one member of the socalled ‘Team Akhilesh’ – IIM-Ahmedabad’s former professor Abhishek Mishra – has been picked as a minister of state.
The size of the ministry is small compared to Mulayam’s jumbo-sized 98-member cabinet, but it is still much larger than initial estimates as Akhilesh himself had talked about a small team. Doubts were being raised on the Samajwadi Party’s intentions to check crime and criminals as 28 out of 47 ministers have criminal cases against them, even though a number of these cases could be political in nature.
At a ceremony at the La Martiniere school grounds, 19 cabinet ministers were inducted and 28 ministers of state. The ceremony was attended by several political bigwigs, among them Union cabinet minister Pawan Bansal and veteran Congress leader Motilal Vora. There were also Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury of CPM and A B Bardhan of CPI which made political pundits wonder whether Mulayam was cosying up to the Left for the possible formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP political front.
While the SP was successful in shedding its anti-English, anti-computer image under Akhilesh during the election campaign, he will still have to explain the inclusion of the likes of Raja Bhaiya and Mahmoob Ali, who faces 15 criminal cases. Akhilesh later defended Raja Bhaiya’s inclusion saying he had been a minister before. Akhilesh tries to do a balancing act
After the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, Akhilesh Yadav went to the CM office at the secretariat annexe to take charge and later addressed a news conference at 5, Kalidas Marg –official residence of the UP CM – where he promised to implement all the promises made in the party manifesto. At his first cabinet meeting it was decided that all girl students passing Class X would be given laptops.
This done, the Mulayam Singh family, including Akhilesh and his wife Dimple and Shivpal Yadav, headed for Sahara Sheher for a lunch hosted by Sahara chief Subrata Roy. The lunch was also attended by the visiting Left leaders and other political and business notables, including Anil Ambani. Jaya Bachchan and Zayed Khan.
At one level, Akhilesh’s team has been picked with care – almost all castes and communities have found representation. Although the 18% job quota for Muslims promised by SP is yet to materialize, the party has given 20% ministerial berths to the community by inducting 10 ministers – threecabinet and seven ministers of state. The maximum number of Cabinet ministers are Yadavs (6), followed by five Thakurs, three Brahmins, and two Dalits.
While L K Advani didn’t turn up for the swearing in, leaving Kalraj Mishra as the sole BJP representative, the presence of BSP leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Swami Prasad Maurya was a surprise. The unexpected arrival of BSP leaders evoked a warm welcome as senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav hugged them and later escorted the two to meet Mulayam.
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