The first cabinet expansion on Wednesday of the second successive term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government saw seven Members from Parliament (MPs) from Uttar Pradesh being inducted into the Council of Ministers. This was apparently done with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due next year.
Meanwhile, two-time MP Kaushal Kishore, who represents the Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh, also took oath as part of the Union Cabinet expansion. He has been appointed as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The 61-year-old is serving his second term in the Lok Sabha. He was the Minister of State in 2003-04.
Born in Begariya village in Lucknow, Kishore has a BSc from Kalicharan Inter College and is married to Jai Devi and has four sons. He has served as MLA in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2002 to 2007. He belongs to the Schedule Castes (Pasi) community and is the national president of the Parakh Mahasangh and was made the state chief of the BJP Schedule Caste Morcha recently.
It is also well known in political circles that Kishore is a critic of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He had been vocal about the lack of management and preparations to handle the COVID-19 crisis in the state during the peak of the second wave.
Reportedly, Kishore wrote a letter to Adityanath a day after he lost his elder brother to COVID-19. In the letter, he complained regarding the arrangements to handle the COVID-19 pandemic at two government hospitals in Lucknow, King George’s Medical University and the Balrampur Hospital. According to an Indian Express report, Kishore had also made an appeal to allow the purchase of oxygen cylinders by patients who are undergoing treatment in home isolation.
Meanwhile, Sources told NDTV that Kishore was publicly assured by Union Home Minister Amit Shah that he will be made a minister, and now the promise has been kept.
