Lucknow, Mar 15: Akhilesh Yadav, whose campaign helped the Samajwadi Party gain an absolute majority in the elections, was on Thursday sworn in as the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but a surprise inclusion in his Cabinet was the controversial MLA Raja Bhaiya.
The 38-year-old Yadav, son of SP chief Mulayam Singh, was sworn in as the 33rd Chief Minister of the state at a function at the La Martinere College ground in Lucknow in the presence of a huge gathering that included members of SP's first family --Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh's wife Dimple -- and an array of political leaders.
Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader A B Bardhan and industrialists Anil Ambani and Subrata Roy Sahara and actress and former SP MP Jaya Bachchan were also present.
Significantly, Congress which lost a high-stake battle to SP, sent Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and senior leader Moti Lal Vora as representatives to the event. BSP was represented by former ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Swami Prasad Maurya.
Among the 28 Cabinet ministers sworn in by Governor B L Joshi were senior leader and Muslim face of SP Azam Khan, Mulayam Singh's brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, Ahmad Hasan, Waqar Ahmad Shah, Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, Ambika Chaudhary and Anand Singh. 19 others of Minister of State rank were also inducted.
Yadav, who appeared to give an image of breaking with the past and removing the tag of “goonda raj” associated with Samajawadi Party's earlier rule, inducted Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, against whom there are pending criminal cases of attempt to murder, kidnapping and abduction.
The Cabinet ministers are:
Azam Khan
Shivpal Singh Yadav
Ahmad Hasan
Waqar Ahmad Shah
Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh
Ambika Chaudhary
Anand Singh
Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya
Balram Yadav
Om Prakash Singh
Awadhesh Prasad
Parasnath Yadav
Ram Govind Chaudhary
Durga Prasad Yadav
Brahma Shanker Tripathi
Kameshwar Upadhyaya
Raja Ram Pandey
Raj Kishore Singh
Shiv Kumar Beri
Following Minister Of State took oath today:
Iqbal Mahmood,
Mahboob Ali,
Shahid Manzoor,
Riyaz Ahmad,
Farid Mahfooz Kidwai,
Waseem Ahmad,
Narendra Singh Yadav,
Shiv Pratap Yadav,
Rajendra Singh Rana,
Moolchandra Chauhan,
Arvind Kumar Singh Gope,
Rajeev Kumar Singh,
Abhishek Mishra,
Vinod Kumar Singh Pandit Singh,
Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar,
Narendra Verma,
Ram Murti Verma,
Surendra Singh Patel,
Chitranjan Swarup,
Manpal Singh Verma,
Kamaal Akhtar,
Shankhlal Majhi,
Kailash Chaurasia,
Rampal Rajvanshi,
Manoj Paras,
Ramkaran Arya,
Aruna Kumari Kori and
Jagdish Sonkar
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