Uttar Pradesh was on Friday saddled with its biggest ever ministry after no less than 91 ministers were inducted by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, taking the strength of his ministry to 98.
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Yadav's current ally and former chief minister Kalyan Singh held the previous record with 95 ministers in his ministry.
Twenty-four Cabinet ministers and 67 ministers of state were administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri at a ceremony held at the sprawling K D Singh Babu stadium in Lucknow.
Prominent among those inducted as Cabinet ministers were Reoti Raman Singh, Naresh Agarwal, Ashok Bajpayee, Ambika Chaudhary, Hari Shankar Tewari, Ram Gobind Chaudhary, Shakir Ali, R K Chaudhary, Virendra Singh, Raja Ram Pandey and Raj Kishore Singh.
Of the 24 Cabinet ministers, 20 are from the Samajwadi Party and one each from alliance partners -- Rashtriya Lok Dal, Loktantrik Congress Party, Samajwadi Janata Party and Samata Party.
Besides inducting 67 ministers of state, Yadav also accommodated four legislators as chairmen of different state-owned corporations.
Political compulsion appeared to have forced Yadav to have the jumbo sized ministry.
Highly placed sources said Yadav had submitted to the governor a list of 44 legislators for being sworn in as ministers on Thursday, but 27 more names were added at the eleventh hour due to intense pressure from new entrants to his Samajwadi Party.
As many as 26 legislators who had crossed over from the Bahujan Samaj Party and had joined the Samajwadi Party have been inducted as ministers of state, besides a number of independents who have lent their support to his coalition government.
Prominent among the former BSP legislators inducted into the ministry are Ansar Ahmed, Kameshwar Upadhaya, Jaiveer Singh, Dinesh Singh, Jai Prakash Yadav, Rajpal Tyagi and Haji Yaqoob.
Only two women -- Usha Verma and Uma Kiran -- have found place in the expanded ministry.
Yadav was sworn in as chief minister on August 29 after the fall of the BSP-BJP coalition government led by Mayawati.
Later in his first expansion on September 6, he inducted six Cabinet ministers -- two each from Samajwadi Party, RLD and RKP.
