Question mark hangs over cabinet expansion in U.P

Lucknow: Diwali has come and gone but Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar is still waiting for his "house to shine like never before".

Rajbhar had earlier announced that the much-awaited cabinet expansion – where his induction into the Yogi ministry was apparently certain—would take place before Diwali and he would celebrate the festival with much gusto.

He also insisted that Dara Singh Chauhan, who lost the recent by-election in Ghosi, would also be given a ministerial position.

Sources in the government said that any expansion could take place next month because Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has a packed schedule for the coming three weeks.

"We have no idea about the cabinet reshuffle right now. The chief minister will be travelling to poll-bound states for campaigning and his schedule in November is packed," said a senior official in the chief minister's secretariat.

According to BJP sources, a major hurdle in cabinet expansion is Rajbhar's insistence on inducting Dara Singh Chauhan.

"The party leadership is unwilling to include Chauhan in the ministry because he has just lost an election and his induction would send out wrong messages. However, Rajbhar is determined on his stand and this is delaying the expansion," said a BJP functionary.

Besides, Chauhan is now perceived as an "unreliable" leader in BJP circles. He was a cabinet minister in the first term of the Yogi government before he quit the BJP almost at the same time when another BJP minister Swami Prasad Maurya left the party to join the Samajwadi Party.

Chauhan had successfully contested Assembly elections from Mau seat on SP ticket but quit the party after a few months and re-joined the BJP.

However, he lost to SP's Sudhakar Singh from Mau in the bypolls that followed.

Party sources said that there are talks that some ministers, who could be asked to contest the Lok Sabha polls, may put in their papers and start preparing for general elections.

"This will create more vacancies in the council of ministers and some more MLAs, including Rampur MLA Akash Saxena, who demolished the bastion of SP leader Azam Khan, could be made ministers," said the functionary.

If this factor plays an important role, the expansion would take place only after the results of elections in five states are announced on December 3.