Image making !! Akhilesh inducts hard critics in his Cabinet

Lucknow: 'Nindak Niyare Rakhiye (keep your critics with you)' is the age-old adage which Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav seemed to have followed in letter and spirit when he inducted three of the hard critics of his party into the council of ministers on Monday.

These three ministers namely Narad Rai, Mohammad Ziauddin Rizvi and old guard of the party Ravi Das Mehrotra, have earlier been either sacked or issued show cause notice by the party. Despite this, they have been inducted into the ministry, could be due to intervention of Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Narad Rai, the 54-year-old MLA from Ballia, was sacked on December 25, 2015 for dissidence and groupism in the party. He, in fact, had been at the loggerheads with the partymen in Ballia.

Similarly, Mohammad Ziauddin Rizvi, the SP MLA from Sikandarpur in Ballia, was issued a show cause notice for criticising the state government in media on June 22, 2013. A letter which was issued to Rizvi then read,”You are a party MLA and your statements have battered the image of party. Tell us the reason that why action should not be initiated against you. ”

Ravidas Mehrotra, the 54-year-old party MLA from Lucknow Central, is known for his hard hitting statements against his own party on television debates. He was the one to criticise none other than the party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on his most-infamous remark about rape and also demanded a written apology from senior minister Raj Ram Pandey for publicly passing a comment on a lady IAS officer, the them District Magistrate of Sultanpur, in 2013.

Not only these three, was even the cabinet minister Balram Yadav sacked only June 21 to be inducted in six days. He was at the receiving hand from the CM for his pro-active role in the merger of dreaded mafia Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal into SP.