Ex-Akali Dal leader in Akhilesh Yadav’s team

Lucknow/Chandigarh: Facing flak over alleged inefficiency, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday effected a major reshuffle of his ministry, inducting 12 new faces, including Akali Dal’s Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, 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 Bhawan, in sixth reshuffle of the council of ministers by Yadav in 43 months since the Samajwadi Party stormed back to power in Uttar Pradesh in March 2012. MoS Hemraj Verma, who was not present at the oath-taking ceremony in the morning, was sworn in later, taking the number of those inducted to 21.

The surprise inclusion was that of Shiromani Akali Dal senior vice president Ramoowalia, a two-term former MP from Sangrur in Punjab who was a Union minister in the United 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 chief minister 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, Sahab Singh Saini is another new face to have found berth in the Cabinet. Shadab Fatima and Madan Chauhan are the new inductees to the rank of Ministers of State (independent charge).