Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday reportedly sacked 82 chairmen, vice-chairmen, advisers and members of several boards, commissions and authorities enjoying MoS rank in the state.
The senior officials were reportedly shown the door for failing to mobilise people in support of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Sources said some were also removed for taking the chief minister for granted and misbehaving with people in general, and police and other government officials in particular.
An order to this effect was issued from the CM’s office on Saturday evening.
Though no official word on the number of those sacked was issued by the state government initially, they later issued a release stating that they have retained 16 of the around 100 MoS-rank officials in the state.
Those who were spared include Gopal Das Neeraj, chairman of UP Bhasha Sansthan, Udai Pratap Singh, chairman of UP Hindi Sansthan, Sunil Jogi, chairman of Hindustani Academy and Naveen Chandra Bajpai, head of UP State Planning Commission.
The immediate reason for Akhilesh’s decision was reportedly the high-handedness of Kuldeep Ujjwal, chairman of Remote Sensing Application Centre. His father Dharmpal Singh had publicly manhandled a police officer in Baghpat two days ago and Ujjwal had supported him.
But sources in the SP claimed that the review of these staterank ministers was going on since the Lok Sabha election debacle. The SP had won only five out of the total 80 seats. The SP candidates had registered complaints with party president Mulayam Singh Yadav that a majority of these state-rank ministers had worked against them during elections. They had also reportedly used their official clout to help some BJP candidates.
SP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agarwal confirmed the removal of these MoS-rank leaders.
“These leaders were tarnishing the image of the party and the government. I have congratulated the CM for his decision. This helps us in gaining the support of at least five per cent more voters,” Agrawal claimed.
“Mulayam had received the maximum complaints against those who were enjoying the MoS rank. They were working as enemies of the SP because of strange reasons. There were also some MoS rank leaders who were running a transfer and postings racket in the state. Akhilesh is also annoyed with his closet friends whom he had honoured with the rank of MoS,” an SP leader said on the condition of anonymity.
The leader pointed out that Tauqeer Raza, adviser to handloom department, had once dubbed Akhilesh anti-Muslim, while Ayub Ansari, adviser to the jail department, had campaigned against the SP’s Meerut Lok Sabha candidate Shahid Manzoor. Rival parties have, however, raised doubts over Akhilesh’s decision and said it could be only an eyewash.
“It could just be an eyewash. If you remember, the CM had suspended 36 state officials on May 20 this year. While the public appreciated Akhilesh for this decision, he silently reinstated all of them within a month. We need to wait and watch this time,” UP BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
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