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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
In a surprise move, the expansion of the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, slated for August 1, has been put off.
Sources said the postponement was done at the behest of the Bhartiya Janata Party, a partner in Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government.
It was only after continued demands of the BJP, that Chief Minister Mayawati had declared that she would expand her team on August 1.
However, it now turns out that there were too many BJP aspirants for too few vacant slots in the cabinet and that was the reason why the BJP requested that the exercise be called off.
No sooner than the announcement was made by the chief minister about the expansion, skirmishes had begun within the BJP for a piece of the pie. The party's allies -- the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Loktantrik Congress Party and independents -- had also demanded their pound of flesh.
The BJP had so far been blaming Mayawati for delaying the expansion by demanding a list of names the party wanted to be accommodated in the ministry.
The BJP was not willing to handover such a list fearing that any advance disclosure of the names to be included in the ministry could be used by Mayawati to incite discord in the already divided BJP ranks.
BJP state chief Vinay Katiyar said the expansion would now take place "after the budget session of the state assembly, which commences on August 8."
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