Cabinet expansion attempt to divert people's attention from UP govt's failures: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday termed the cabinet expansion in Uttar Pradesh an attempt to divert people's attention from the state government's failures.

He claimed that during the SP regime in the state, UP was on its way to become 'uttam pradesh' (best state) but the BJP government harmed the image of the state and turned it into 'hatya pradesh' (murder state).

Yadav, in a statement, alleged that after failing on all fronts, the Yogi Adityanath government is trying to divert people's attention by transferring senior officials on one hand and expanding the ministry on the other.

"It has been over two years since the BJP came to power in the state and it is today that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the BJP leadership realised that they have non-performers and lethargic people as ministers. The government has taken the resignations of some of them," he said on five ministers' resignation from their posts.

Earlier in the day, the UP chief minister inducted 18 new members in his council of ministers, the first such reshuffle since the BJP government came to power in the state two-and-a-half years back.

Twenty-three ministers -- the 18 new faces and five others who were elevated from the minister of state rank they held earlier -- were sworn in by Governor Anandiben Patel at the Raj Bhavan.