Mayawati inducts Nishad cabinet minister to replace the tainted one

Lucknow, Jun 11 (UNI) The 13-month-old Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh today inducted Dharamraj Nishad in her cabinet to fill the gap after sacking of former fisheries minister Jamuna Nishad involved in the murder of a police constable in Maharajganj Kotwali.

State governor T V Rajeswar administered the oath to Mr Nishad at a simple ceremony held at Raj Bhavan this evening.

Chief Minister Mayawati, her ministerial colleagues, BSP leaders and senior officials were present during the oath ceremony. Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari was the only Opposition leader to be present on the occasion.

Dharamraj Nishad, three time BSP MLA from Kateheri assembly seat in Ambedkar Nagar district was given the cabinet rank even as the outgoing minister Jamuna Nishad was in the rank of minister of state.

With this expansion, the strength of the BSP government stood at 54, with 30 in the rank of cabinet ministers. This was the seventh expansion of the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) government in the state, which came to power on May 13, 2007.

The expansion was required to bring in a Nishad community Minister after Jamuna Nishad was sacked by the Chief Minister on June 8 in connection with the killing of a police constable at Maharajganj Kotwali on June 7. The sacked Minister was also arrested yesterday by the police in the murder charges.

Meanwhile to appease the Nishad community, yesterday the government had appointed another leader, Jai Prakash Nishad, as the chairman of the State Integration Council with a Minister of State status.

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