In rejig, Akhilesh inducts Akali man

Facing flak over alleged inefficiency, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday effected a major reshuffle of his ministry, inducting 12 new faces, including Akali Dal’s Balwant Singh Ramoow-alia, and promoting eight ministers as part of a massive image makeover.

Five Cabinet ministers, eight ministers of state with Independent charge and eight ministers of state were administered the oath of office and secrecy by governor Ram Naik at Raj Bhavan, in sixth reshuffle of the council of ministers by Mr Yadav in 43 months since the Samajwadi Party stormed back to power in UP in March 2012.

MoS Hemraj Verma, who was not present at the oath-taking ceremony Saturday morning, was sworn in later, taking the number of those inducted on Saturday to 21.

The surprise inclusion was that of Shiromani Ak-ali Dal senior vice-president Ramoowalia, a two-term former MP from San-grur in Punjab who was a Union minister in the Uni-ted Front government headed by H.D. Deve Gowda.

The Akhilesh Yadav ministry now has 58 ministers — 26 Cabinet ministers (including the CM), 11 MoS (Independent charge) and rest MoS.

With several ministers facing accusations of inefficiency, the CM had on Thursday sacked eight of them and stripped nine others of their portfolios.

Ministers of state with independent charge Arvind Singh Gope and Kamal Akhtar have been elevated as Cabinet ministers, along with Vinod Kumar Singh, alias Pandit Singh.

Besides Ramoowalia, Sah-ab Singh Saini is another new face to have found ber-th in the Cabinet. Shadab Fatima and Madan Chauh-an are the new inductees to the rank of ministers of state (Independent charge).

The CM rewarded those doing well by elevating them. Riyaz Ahmed, Farid Mahmood Kidwai, Mool Chand Chauhan, Ram Sakal Gurjar, Nitin Agarwal and Yasser Shah, who were MoS earlier, have been promoted and given Independent charge.

The MoS who were sworn in Saturday are: Radhey Shayam Singh, Shailendra Yadav Lalai, Omkar Singh, Pawan Pandey, Sudhir Kumar Rawat, Laxmikant, alias Pappu Nishad, and Vanshidhar Baudh, besides Hemraj Verma, who took oath later.