Yielding to threats, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday restored the charge of Meerut to senior leader Mohammed Azam Khan after he virtually dared him to remove from the ministry. “The CM has decided to make Khan minister in-charge of Meerut again,” a senior official said in Lucknow.
Sources said the decision was taken after intervention of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mr Khan had shot off a letter to the chief minister asking him to remove him from his Cabinet if he was found unfit to be a minister.
“The CM can remove me from his cabinet if he found me unfit to be a minister,” Mr Khan, who is urban development and minority welfare minister, said in his letter.
Mr Khan offered to resign from the post of minister in-charge of Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar districts, saying if he was unfit to be in-charge of Meerut, he could not be the guardian minister of other districts too. Mr Khan was the minister in-charge of Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar and responsible for development projects in these districts.
Terming as “improper” his removal as minister in-charge of Meerut, Mr Khan told reporters in Delhi that he had written a letter to the chief minister but denied he offered to quit.
“How can I say something which I have not done...I am not here to weaken the government...,” he said when asked if he had offered to quit.