Mayawati inducts 56 ministers

LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Mayawatiexpanded her five-month-old ministry from 23 to 79 here on Friday. But while shedid that, there were rumblings in the coalition partner, Bharatiya Janata Party.So much so that the CM had to clear the air of even the slightest doubt abouther government. She ruled out any threat to it no matter how displeased the rankand file of BJP was after the expansion. She also did not think that there wasthe need for another expansion.Although the CM described the ministrymaking as a balancing act, the Independents and MLCs, except one from the BSP,were ignored. Many senior BJP leaders, like NKS Gaur, Nepal Singh andHarish Chandra Srivastava were also not considered. Also, noteworthy were themissing names of those close to former chief minister, Rajnath Singh.There were nine Thakurs, eight Brahmins, three Muslims and a same numberof women among the total 42 new faces in the 56 inducted today. Allahabad andLucknow did not figure in the new list at all. The exercise ofdistribution of portfolios seemed to have upset a section of the BJP. Two of itsMLAs made light of the their displeasure, and a meeting was being convened bysome disgruntled legislators. The situation took a turn for the worse whenLallu Singh, who was being offered the portfolio of minister of state (MoS),refused to take oath which was administered by governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri atthe Raj Bhawan.What annoyed Lallu apparently was that he himself was beinggiven a state minister’s status while first-timers like Ameeta Singh wasbeing given independent charge. Lallu was MoS in previous governments headed byKalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh.There were protests fromother quarters within the party. Ganga Bux Singh reportedly threatened to resignin protest for not being given a ministerial berth. The number ofdisgruntled BJP MLAs is rising and they have planned to hold secret meetingsalong with Independents, who had also been denied ministerial berths to chalkout their future course of action.“The development does not augurwell for BJP,� admitted a senior party leader. He put the blame squarelyon urban development minister, Lalji Tandon, who by virtue of being leader ofthe BJP legislature party was given the responsibility of preparing thelist.Tandon was the most harried man. He remained closeted with state BJPchief, Vinay Katiyar and Kalraj Mishra, party’s incharge of the politicalaffairs in the state at a marathon meeting at his Mall Avenue residence.Inall 56 new ministers were inducted. The composition is: 25 BSP, 24 BJP, four LokDal and two Loktantrik Congress Party. And with this, there are 30 cabinetministers, 15 each from the BSP and the BJP, 20 MoS with independent charges, 10each of BSP and the BJP and 29 MoS, 15 of BJP and its allies and 14 from theBSP.