Mamata Banerjee, the Union Cabinet Minister without portfolio, can take heart from this. The UP government has six ministers — including Kusum Rai and Anuradha Chaudhary who made it to the Cabinet allegedly because of their proximity to Kalyan Singh and Ajit Singh respectively — who are yet to be allocated portfolios.All the six have been allotted offices, security and new cars but they have nothing to do. Ever since they took oath of office on September 6, none of them has attended office in the Secretariat building. And sources say they are not going to be given any work for at least a month — till the end of pitra paksha.The only exception being Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Shivpal who reportedly assumed the CM’s role in his absence. Shivpal held the Janata Darbar, where the Chief Minister addresses public’s grievances, even when Mulayam was in Delhi. He reportedly also issued directions to the special secretary to the CM, Shambhu Nath Yadav.While they have offices to go to, even though there is no work, these ministers are yet to get government bungalows. Five of them have their own houses in Lucknow but RLD’s Anuradha Chaudhary is putting up at the VVIP guest house. She’s not a known face in Lucknow despite having been a Cabinet minister under Mayawati last year. She follows in the footsteps of her elder sister, Kavita Chaudhary (daughter-in-law of former Haryana CM Bansi Lal), who is in the Congress.On the inclusion of Kusum Rai and Anuradha, ex-CPM MP Subhasini Ali says: ‘‘No CM has a choice if the leaders of the parties the two represent have recommended their names.Such miracles happen only in coalition politics.’’‘‘The first expansion of the government is nothing but to make room for near and dear ones of political heavyweights or those who have proximity with them,’’ says BJP spokesman Hriday Narain Dixit.
