Eye on polls: Team Akhilesh gets 12 new faces

Changing times: Nine ministers promoted in what is said to be CM's makeover

Aiming an image makeover ahead of the 2017 Assembly election in the state and stressing on youth, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday inducted 12 new faces in his ministry besides promoting nine others.

The new and the promoted ministers, barring one, who was absent, were sworn in by Governor Ram Naik at the Raj Bhavan here.

The rejig, the sixth since Akhilesh became the chief minister in 2012, saw inclusion of five ministers of cabinet rank, eight ministers of state with independent charge and eight ministers of state. The new faces include: Sahib Singh Saini, Balwant Singh (Cabinet), Shadab Fatima (minister of state with independent charge) and Shailendra Yadav, Banshidhar Baudh, Onkar Singh Yadav, Radhey Shyam Singh, Hemraj Verma, Sudhir Rawat, Pappu Nishad (all ministers of state).

Those promoted to the rank of Cabinet ministers, included Arvind Singh Gope, Kamal Akhtar and Pandit Singh.

New leaders

The inclusion of backward-caste leaders from western UP clearly indicated that the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) would now focus on the region to counter the ‘growing influence’ of the BJP.

Ram Sakal Gujjar and Sahib Singh Saini, who were promoted in Saturday’s rejig, came from the western region. Another backward community leader Pappu Nishad, who represented the ‘mallah’ (boatmen) community, was made a minister of state.

The chief minister also inducted Shadab Fatima while promoting Kamal Akhtar in a bid to woo the minority community. Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey, the SP MLA from Ayodhya constituency, was again included in the ministry in an attempt to prevent the BJP from regaining foothold in Faizabad region. Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who hailed from Punjab and resigned from Akali Dal only on Friday, was a surprise inclusion.

The promotion of controversial minister of state Pandit Singh to the rank of Cabinet minister was also surprising since Singh had allegedly been involved in cases of intimidating government officials and traders in Gonda district.

Following Saturday’s expansion, the Akhilesh ministry became younger by a few years. SP sources said that Akhilesh’s stamp was clearly visible in the expansion and many leaders, who were considered to be loyalists of other senior SP leaders, were not considered by the chief minister.