It has been a little over a month since the Akhilesh Yadav government came to power in Uttar Pradesh and members of the core team are already worried over the depletion in the image of the government because of a group of ministers.
Members of Team Akhilesh, the team that worked closely with Mr Yadav during the elections to script the party’s biggest success ever, is worried that the antics of some of the ministers may take the sheen off the image of the chief minister and his government and may end up demolishing their efforts.
Talking to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, a senior team member said, “Despite warning from the chief minister, some of the ministers continue to behave in a manner that lowers the image of the party and the government. These are senior ministers and the chief minister has politely warned them but they continue to ignore his advice. We want that such ministers should be dropped without delay so that the ‘disease’ does not spread further.”
While Team Akhilesh wants action against these erring ministers, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav is averse to any kind of action being taken against the ministers so soon. “He does not want to act in haste and has refused to take any action though he is also upset at the ministers’ behaviour,” said an aide of the SP president.
The team members are particularly upset with senior ministers Mohammed Azam Khan and Mehboob Ali, both of whom have been kicking up one controversy after another in the past one month.
Mr Khan, who ranks second in hierarchy, first kicked up an unseemly row over Shahi Imam Syed Ahmad Bukhari and used unparliamentarily language against the cleric. This put Samajwadi president Mulayam Singh Yadav in a piquant situation and took considerable effort to resolve the matter.
Mr Khan has also been going around roughing up officials in his constituency Rampur.