Raja Bhaiyya after his swearing-in. (PTI)

Lucknow, Jan. 21: Raja Bhaiyya has been re-inducted in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet as food and civil supplies minister.

The Independent MLA from Kunda, whose real name is Raghuraj Pratap Singh, resigned from the cabinet last November after the Supreme Court quashed the decision by the Samajwadi Party government to withdraw terrorism charges against him. At that time, too, he was the food and civil supplies minister.

The reason for bringing back Raja Bhaiyya appears to lie in the Samajwadi Party’s effort to woo Thakur votes. With Rajnath Singh, another Uttar Pradesh Thakur leader, in the BJP president’s seat, the Samajwadi Party would have to struggle hard now for the upper-caste votes. So the party needed Raja Bhaiyya all the more.

The Kunda MLA was sworn in this morning at Raj Bhavan. Present on the occasion were chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Amar Singh, the Samajwadi Party general secretary and a Thakur himself, and MLA Akshay Pratap Singh, Raja Bhaiyya’s brother.

Amar, of course, did not lose the opportunity to remind all about the phone tapping controversy, reiterating how correct he was in alleging that Delhi police were involved.

Raja Bhaiyya, who was all through looking at Amar during swearing-in, said later: “I am neither a thug nor an anti-national. Political motives prompted imposition of POTA charges against me. I hope to get justice from the court.

“Jail, bail and this return to ministry are part of the vicissitudes of my life,” he added.