M A I N   N E W S

3 Cong rebels made ministers

Lucknow, February 6
Continuing to bolster her ranks ahead of a possible trial of strength in the Budget session of the state Assembly, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today inducted into her ministry three more MLAs who deserted the Congress and joined the BSP.

The Chief Minister also elevated a BSP Minister of State to the Cabinet rank.

Mr Rajpal Tyagi, Mr Vinod Kumar Yadav and Mr Dinesh Singh, who had joined the BSP yesterday, have been made Ministers of State with independent charge, while the BSP’s Minister of State for Cultural Affairs Ramesh Kumar Sharma was elevated to the Cabinet rank.

All four were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri at Raj Bhavan here.

With today’s reshuffling the strength of the Mayawati government has gone up to 77.

The BSP’s strength in the Assembly also has gone up to 106.

Ms Mayawati had on Tuesday inducted into her ministry four members of the Akhil Bharatiya Congress Dal (ABCD), the group of breakaway Congress legislators, as Ministers of state with Independent charge.

She had demoted four BSP ministers from Minister of State (independent charge) to mere Ministers of State and dropped 13 ministers, including one of the Cabinet rank, of her party, but later accommodated four of them as Ministers of State.

Allocation of portfolios to these ministers would be announced by tonight.

ABCD leader Akhilesh Singh, who was instrumental in engineering the split in the Congress legislature group, was not inducted in the ministry ostensibly because of his refusal to join the BSP. With seven of the eight-member ABCD joining the BSP, Mr Akhilesh Singh remains the lone member in the newly formed outfit. Sources said Mr Akhilesh Singh, who has pledged outside support to the Mayawati government, was not sworn in in view of his long criminal background and to avoid controversy.

Ms Mayawati said “Mr Akhilesh Singh wanted to join the BSP, but we are not interested in taking him.” “We absorb people from other parties and organisations in our fold only if they come up to our expectations,” she told reporters after the swearing-in at Raj Bhavan.

The Chief Minister said many more Congress MLAs were “eager” to leave the party and form a separate outfit with a view to getting “my patronage”.

When asked whether she would be effecting another reshuffle in her ministry in the near future, she said “you will be informed whenever it takes place”. PTI