LUCKNOW: The first pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party government headed by Kalyan Singh took over the reins of government in Uttar Pradesh Monday evening. All the 18 members of the ministry—11 of cabinet rank and seven ministers of state—were sworn—in by governor B. Satyanarayanna Reddy at a special function at his official residence. The BJP has so far won 212 seats out of the 404 results declared for the 425-member assembly. Elections in the remaining 21 constituencies have been countermanded.
The Janata Dal is the biggest opposition group in the new house with strength of 91 members.
Premlata Katiyar is the only woman in the 18-member council of ministers. There are no deputy ministers.
The presidents of the state unit of the BJP R.K.Gupta the vice president Lalji Tandon were among those sworn-in.
The others who were administered the oath of office as cabinet ministers were Ganga Bux Singh Brahm Dutt Dwivedi Dinesh Jouhari Ramapati Shastry Ajijaz Rizvi Sudhir Kumar Valiyan and Kedar Singh Fonia.
The ministers of state who were sworn-in were Umanath Singh Krishna Swaroop Vaidya Surya Pratap Shahi Dhanraj Yadav Shiv Pratap Shukla Ram Kumar Verma and Mastram.
Kalyan Singh’s name for the leadership of the BJP legislature group in the state was cleared by the party high command on June 21 and he was unanimously elected the leader of the legislature group of the party on Saturday.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 28, 1991
