Mayawati sworn in as Chief Minister, 49 ministers also take oath

Lucknow, May 13 (UNI) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati was today sworn in as the 33rd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh at an impressive ceremony in the forecourt of Raj Bhawan along with 49 other ministers.

A total of 19 Cabinet ministers, 21 ministers of state (Independent charge) and nine ministers of state were also sworn in.

Ms Mayawati and her ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor T V Rajeswar.

While the Cabinet ministers were called on the dias to take pledge individually, the 21 ministers of state (Independent charge) were called in batches of seven. The nine ministers of state took the oath in two batches of five and four respectively.

Besides the Chief Minister, the Council of Ministers of Ms Mayawati have two other women members. While Ms Omvati was sworn in as minister of state (Independent charge), Ms Vidya Chaudhury was administered the oath of office and secrecy as minister of state.

Outgoing Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey were also present during the swearing-in ceremony.

The BSP had romped home with an absolute majority in the just-concluded Assembly elections, winning 206 seats in the 403-seat House.

The 19 Cabinet ministers who were administered the oath of office and secrecy are: Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Ramvir Upadhyay, Lalji Verma, Indrajit Saroj, Sukhdev Rajbhar, Jaiveer Singh, Ved Ram Bhati, Laxmi Narain, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Phagu Chauhan, Jagdish Narain Rai, Swami Prasad Maurya, Nakul Dubey, Daddu Prasad, Narain Singh, Ram Prasad Chaudhury, Dharam Singh Saini, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi and Sudhir Goel.

UNI