Raja Bhaiyya makes a comeback into UP cabinet

Lucknow: The controversial leader Raja Bhaiyya has been re-inducted in the UP cabinet in today's expansion of Akhilesh Yadav ministry.He was sworn-in in presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, senior ministers Azam Khan, Shivpal Singh Yadav, Ahmad Hasan and Ambika Chowdhary. Media reports recently hinted that the legislator from Kunda was inching closer to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) although Raja Bhaiyya had denied this.He has been close to BJP national president Rajnath Singh and has served under him as a minister when the latter was UP chief minister.Raja Bhaiyya has served as minister in the cabinet of Kalyan Singh and Ram Prakash Gupta - both BJP chief ministers. The move to reinduct the Kunda legislator is also seen as a move by the Samajwadi Party leadership to quell the growing dissatisfaction among the Thakurs.Talking to reporters after being sworn in, Raja Bhaiyya said he was pleased that he is back in the ministry and thanked chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for their "sneh aur vishwas (love and trust)".He also said he had always maintained that he had nothing to do with the murder of the police official and had in fact volunteered to undergo a polygraph test. He came out clean in the lie detector test.Justifying the re-induction of Raja Bhaiyya into UP cabinet, the SP leader Naresh Agarwal said that the party had always said that Raja Bhaiyya was innocent in the DSP murder case.“Since the CBI has given him a clean chit in the case, he has been rightly re-inducted,” said Naresh Agarwal.Reacting to the re-induction of Raja Bhaiyya into the Akhilesh cabinet, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Laxmikant Bajyai said it was an internal matter of SP.He, however, added that the SP had not done any favour to Raja Bhaiya."He was named in a murder case and was found to be innocent in the case by the investigative agencies and hence it is a natural process that is being followed," he added.Akhilesh Pratap Singh, spokesman of the state Congress, said: "It would be better that the state government focussed on governance rather than reshuffles of its ministry.""This criminal-friendly government should focus on governance and development...," he added. Raja Bhaiyya, an Independent legislator from Kunda in Pratapgarh district, had resigned as food and civil supplies minister seven months ago after his name surfaced in an FIR on the murder of police officer Zia-ul-Haq. Haq, a deputy superintendent of police posted as Kunda circle officer, was killed by a mob, which his widow Parveen Azad alleged, acted at Raja Bhaiyya's behest.The killing evoked a national outage and embarrassed the state government. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) a month back gave Raja Bhaiyya a clean chit in the case. His name had also floated ahead of an earlier ministry expansion July 18, but the chief minister then cold-shouldered the demand of Raja Bhaiyya's supporters. (With IANS inputs)