MLA who conquered Mulayam's bastion Mainpuri rewarded with cabinet berth

Agra: BJP MLA Ram Naresh Agnihotri, who breached Mulayam Singh Yadav’s bastion Mainpuri by defeating a SP candidate from Bhogaon constituency in the last assembly elections, has been rewarded with a cabinet berth.

Agnihotri (63), a first time MLA, was sworn in as a cabinet minister in the first cabinet expansion by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday.

The Bhogaon seat was a pocket borough of Samajwadi Party (SP) and its candidate Alok Kumar Shakya had won the seat in the last three polls in 2012, 2007 and 2002. However, BJP’s Agnihotri handed a major upset to the SP by winning the seat after almost 30 years with a margin of 20,297 in the 2017 assembly polls. The last time the BJP won this seat was in 1989 with its candidate Shivraj Singh Chauhan alias PTI.

Talking to TOI, BJP’s district vice president, Anurag Pandey, said, “This is a proud moment for everyone. Agnihotri is a very senior person and has grass root connections with the organisation.”

Shivraj Singh Chauhan, a former MLA from Bhogaon, said Agnihotri’s entry to the cabinet will “surely prove beneficial for the local residents”.

Agnihotri had been a RSS pracharak in Ghaziabad and also was a member of legislative Council (MLC), besides holding other organizational positions.