NEW DELHI, 30 July — Expansion of Uttar Pradesh state Cabinet, slated for Aug. 1, has been put off at the behest of the central leadership of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). State Chief Minister Mayawati decided to expand the Cabinet under pressure from the BJP.
However, it now turned out that there were too many BJP aspirants for a few vacant Cabinet posts and hence the BJP requested Mayawati that the exercise be called put on hold.
Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is sharing power with the BJP and several smaller parties in a coalition government that was installed after recent assembly elections resulted in a hung house.
As soon as Mayawati announced her decision to expand the Cabinet the BJP swung into action for a piece of the pie. The party’s allies — Rashtriya Lok Dal, Loktantrik Congress Party and independent legislators had also demanded their pound of flesh. The BJP had so far been blaming Mayawati for delaying the expansion by demanding a list of names the party wanted to be accommodated in the ministry.
The BJP was not willing to present such a list fearing that any advance disclosure of names could be used by Mayawati to incite discord in the already divided BJP ranks.
BJP state chief Vinay Katiyar said the Cabinet would now be enlarged after the budget session of the state assembly, which is scheduled to begin on Aug. 8.
