UP polls: Akhilesh Yadav sacks minister Sharda Pratap Shukla, now RLD candidate

The sitting SP MLA from Sarojini Nagar constituency is contesting election on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket.

Updated on: Feb 9, 2017, 13:32:56 IST

Hindustan Times, Lucknow | By Umesh Raghuvanshi

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Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday dropped minister of state (independent charge) for higher education Sharda Pratap Shukla from his council of ministers. Governor Ram Naik has accepted chief minister’s recommendation, a Raj Bhawan spokesperson said.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (AFP Photo)

The sitting SP MLA from Sarojini Nagar constituency is contesting election on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket.

Shukla’s name had figured in the SP list of the then SP state president Shivpal Singh Yadav released on December 28m, but was dropped from the list of candidates announced by the chief minister after he took over as the Samajwadi Party president.

The SP has fielded Anurag Yadav from Sarojini Nagar assembly seat.

The chief minister had inducted Shukla along with others in the cabinet revamp carried out on June 27 last year. There were reports that Shukla was not happy following denial of ticket and may switch over loyalties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Umesh Raghuvanshi
Umesh Raghuvanshi is an award-winning journalist with nearly four decades of demonstrated experience in the profession. He is the author of Ayodhya: The Gods Are Liberated. He is skilled in storytelling and newswriting, and writes on politics, governance, legislature, finance, environment, and social issues. He is based in Lucknow, is well-travelled, and has covered several national and international events, as well as all assembly and parliament elections in Uttar Pradesh since 1984. He has been a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a Metcalf Fellow at the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting, University of Rhode Island, USA. He is a science graduate from DBS College, Dehradun, and holds an MA in Political Science from DAV (PG) College, Dehradun. He won the KC Kulish International Merit Award for excellence in journalism (2015) and received it in New Delhi in 2017. He also won a competition organised by the United Nations Environment Programme DTIE OzonAction Programme in 2009 that assessed coverage of the interlinkages between ozone and climate change. He was awarded in Beijing, China, in 2010. He started his career with a Dehradun-based English daily in the early 1980s and later worked with The Pioneer too.Read More