Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has dropped five cabinet ministers and three ministers of state from his government.

Yesterday, the young chief minister had hinted at expansion of the state's council of ministers after the Bihar assembly elections scheduled to end next month. "Let the elections in Bihar be over," CM had said while replying to a question about the impending reshuffle of the ministry on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister met the governor to discuss the revamp of his cabinet. “CM met Governor at Raj Bhawan to discuss expansion of his cabinet,” the Raj Bhawan said in a brief statement.

An official spokesman said "Akhilesh Yadav is set to rejig his council of ministers on October 31. New faces are likely to be inducted soon."

The state has 26 cabinet ministers, including the chief minister, 24 ministers of state, and four ministers of state (independent charge). Uttar Pradesh can have a maximum permissible strength of 60 for the council of ministers.

With the death of Minister of state (independent charge) for Rural Engineering Service, Rajendra Rana on Tuesday, the vacancies in the council of ministers has gone up to six. There are indications that CM may drop some ministers.

Those dropped from the council of ministers included five cabinet ministers and three ministers of state. The cabinet ministers are Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, Ambika Chaudhary, Shiv Kumar Beria, Narad Rai and Shivakant Ojha while the ministers of state are Alok Kumar Shakya, Yogesh Pratap Singh and Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar.

The nine ministers whose portfolios were taken away are Ahmad Hasan, Awadhesh Prasad, Paras Nath Yadav, Ram Govind Chaudhary, Durga Prasad Yadav, Brahma Shankar Tripathi, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, Iqbal Mehmood and Mahboob Ali.

The work of the ministers who were dropped or divested of their portfolios was allocated to the chief minister.