LUCKNOW/NAGPUR: Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday sacked eight ministers from his cabinet.
Five cabinet ministers and three ministers of state have been dropped from the Akhilesh Yadav government, a Samajwadi Party spokesman said.
The Samajwadi Party feels that by presenting that Team Akhilesh is the one firmly in command– before the 2017 assembly elections — it could sent a strong message to people who feel Akhilesh doesn’t have a free hand in running the UP government.
On Wednesday Akhilesh had hinted as much that the expansion of the state’s council of ministers would happen after the Bihar assembly elections scheduled to end next month. “Let the elections in Bihar be over,” he had said, while replying to a question about an impending reshuffle of the council of ministers.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister met governor Ram Naik on Wednesday to discuss the expansion of his cabinet.
Uttar Pradesh has a maximum permissible strength of 60 for the council of ministers.
