Akhilesh inducts one minister, elevates 2

LUCKNOW: Expanding his cabinet for the fourth time since coming to power nearly two years ago, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday inducted one minister while elevating two state ministers to cabinet rank. Shivakant Ojha is the new face in the ministry while state minister (independent charge) and MLA from Amethi Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and state minister and Rae Bareli MLA Manoj Pandey were elevated to cabinet rank.
Pandey and Prajapati were administered the oath by governor B L Joshi. Ojha was not present at the swearing-in ceremony, being on a tour as part of a Commonwealth delegation.
Political observers say by inducting two Brahmins in Ojha and Pandey into his cabinet- the latter being elevated- the Samajwadi Party appears to have reached out to upper castes in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Pandey said SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has always given due share to the upper caste. “It was Samajwadi Party which stood against the controversial reservation in promotion bill while all other parties including BJP, BSP and Congress supported it,” said Pandey, who was the president of Brahmin Mahasabha which was dissolved at the instance of the SP chief.
The elevation of Pandey and Prajapati is also seen as SP’s attempt to send a strong message in Congress's stronghold of Rae Bareli and Amethis, represented by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively.
Elevation of Prajapati is also seen as an attempt to woo the most backward castes. Prajapati happens to be a ‘Kumhar’ and has been leading the ‘Samajik Nyay Yatra’ to showcase the SP government move to include 17 OBCs into SC category.
With this the number of cabinet ministers has risen from 22 to 25. The number of state ministers (independent charge) now stand at five, while the count of state ministers came down 30. In all, the Akhilesh Yadav government will now have sixty ministers, putting a cap on any further cabinet expansion.