Four days after Chief Minister carried out a reshuffle of his cabinet Akhilesh Yadav allocated portfolios to his ministers clipping the wings of powerful ministers like Raghuraj Pratap Singh and Ram Govind Chaudhry and retained much hyped health department with himself.
“Expect more reshuffle in the cabinet. This is not final. Voices of dissent are bound to emanate after this allocation of portfolios,” a senior Samajwadi Party leader told The Pioneer here on Wednesday.
The portfolio allocation has made is clear that Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya has lost the confidence of Chief Minister. He was Food and Civil Supplies minister before he was divested of his charge. He has now Minister Stamp and court fee and registration – considered non-important portfolio.
Singh was Food and Civil Supplies minister during Mulayam Singh regime and when Akhilesh took charge in 2012 he was given the same department plus jail administration. He quit ministry following allegation of his involvement in murder of a DSP. But when he again joined the cabinet he was given Food and Civil Supply department again.
Political grapevine suggests that Raja Bhaiya, who is also considered to be very close to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was hobnobbing to side with BJP post 2017 elections. This change in portfolio is considered an indication that he losing clout with SP.
Another cabinet rank minister Ram Govind Chaudhry too is relegated to non-consequential ministry. He was earlier Basic Education minister and now he has been given the charge of Social welfare, SC/ST and Soldiers welfare departments.
The new entrant in Samajwadi Party Balwant Singh Ramuwalia gets Jail ministry.
The Health Minister Ahmad Hasan would now be Basic Education Minister while Former Panchayati Raj Minister Balram Yadav gets Secondary Education ministry. Avdhesh Prasad is Home Guards and PRD minister while earlier he was Panchayati Raj minister. Paras Nath Yadav gets Rural Engineering Services ministry.
Earlier Transport minister Durga Prasad Yadav is new Forest minister while Brahma Shankar Tripathi who was earlier Home Guards Minister gets Khadi and Gramodyog ministry. Arvind Singh Gope who was MoS Rural development becomes Cabinet minister of the same department.
Other MoS who have got promotion in this reshuffle include Mehboob Ali who is now cabinet rank minister of Sericulture and Textile, Iqbal Ahmad gets FDA ministry.
The portfolios have been approved by Governor Ram Naik. A release from Raj Bhawan said that new portfolios have been given to 15 cabinet, 8 minister of state ( independent charge) and 10 minister of state.
However there is no change in the departments of other ministers.
The portfolios were distributed to 12 new inducted ministers including 5 cabinets on October 31 last and to nine cabinet ministers, whose departments were withdrawn on October 29 last.
The portfolio as follows:
Cabinet Ministers:
Ahmed Hasan — Primary education
Balram Yadav— Secondary education
Awadhesh Prasad — Homeguards
Parasnath Yadav— Rural Electrification Services
Ram Govind Choudhury— Social Welfare,SC/ST welfare,defence welfare
Durga Prasad Yadav—- Forest
Brahma Shanker Tripathi— Khadi and gramudyog
Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya— Stamps and court fee, registration, civil defence
Iqbal Mahmud — Food and drug adminstration
Mahboob Ali— Silk and handloom
Arvind Singh Gope— Rural Development
Kamal Akhtar— Food and supply
Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh— Agriculture, agriculture education and research
Balwant Singh Ramuwalia— Jail
Sahab Singh Saini— Backward welfare and handicapped.
Minister of state for Independent charge:
Riyaz Ahmed—- fisheries and public entreprises
Farid Mahfooz Kidwai— Technical education
Moolchand Chauhan— horticulture and food processing
Ram Sakal Gujjar— sports and youth welfare
Nitin Agarwal— micro,small,medium entreprises and export promotion
Yasher Shah— Tranport
Madan Chauhan— Entertainment tax
Ms Sayeeda Sadab Fatima— women welfare
Minister of states:
Wasim Ahmed— child welfare, nutrient, primary education and energy
Dr Shiv Pratap Yadav— Zoo and health
Radheshyam Singh— Agriculture, agriculture education and research and health education
Shailenda Yadav lalai— employment and energy
Omkar Singh Yadav— rural development
Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey — Forest
Sudhir Kumar Rawat— IT and electronics, medical health
Hemraj Verma— Food and supply
laxmikant alias Pappu Nishad— Food and Supply
Vanshidhar Baudh— social welfare,SC/ST welfare, defence welare.