Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will go for seventh expansion of his cabinet since he took reign in March 2012 on Mondaywhere he is likely to induct four new ministers and changes portfolios of a few others.
With sacked Balram Yadav would certainly make into the ministry again as decided by the SP Central Parliamentary Board, CM will induct other ministers to balance the caste equations. Speculations are rife that that Yadav may induct a Muslim as well as an OBC face in the cabinet.
After the QED merger with SP Yadav has dropped Secondary Education minister Balram Yadav from cabinet because the later had played crucial role in the merger. He would probably the second minister in this government who will return to cabinet after getting the boot. The other being Pawan Pandey.
In this regime CM has so far sacked around a dozen ministers and nine others whose ministry has been changed. The ministers who faced the axe were: Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, Ambika Chaudhry, Shiv Kumar Beria, Narad Rai, Shivkant Ojha, Alok Kumar Shakya, Yogesh Pratap Singh and Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar.
Some ministers had lost their job because of disciplinary reasons these include Pawan Pandey, who was sacked on June 14, 2014 but was later reinstated. CM had also removed Anand Singh from the cabinet after his son Kirti Vardhan Singh joined BJP in 2014. Another minister who had faxed the axe was Raja Ram Pandey who had passed indecent remarks against women District Magistrates.
The expansion could be the last ministry reshuffle as state will go to polls in early 2017. There are just four vacancies as in the House of 403 UP cabinet can have 60 ministers. At present there are 56 ministers working including 24 cabinet, 10 minister of state (independent charge) and 22 minister of states.
State Governor Ram Naik will administer oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at Raj Bhawan at 1100 hrs.
The last cabinet expansion had taken place on October 31 in which Chief Minister had inducted five cabinet ministers, eight ministers of state with independent charge and eight ministers of state.