AGRA: Residents of Mathura and Aligarh, where the BJP made a clean sweep in the recently concluded polls, after a complete wipe-out in the last assembly elections, have been handsomely rewarded by the newly sworn in chief minister, Yogi Adityanath , with the induction of three ministers from these two districts. However, Agra, where the party too made a clean sweep has got a raw deal, as none of its MLAs have been inducted.While Shrikant Sharma, party's national secretary and Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary from Mathura have been inducted as cabinet ministers, first timer Sandeep Singh , grandson of Rajasthan Governor, Kalyan Singh, from Aligarh, has been also given a state ministers berth. Interestingly even Shrikant Sharma is a first timer and is considered close to party's national president, Amit Shah.Even Firozabad has got a ministerial berth with the induction of SP Singh Baghel, who headed the OBC Morcha till November 2016.The disappointment in BJP's Agra cadre was evident, city president, Vijay Shivhare, said, "at least one of our MLAs should have been inducted as we too won all the nine seats in the districts, an unprecedented performance". Former union minister and senior party leader, Ram Shankar Katheria, told TOI that a MLA from Agra would certainly be inducted in the next expansion of the cabinet. "We would not neglect Agra", he said.BJP's young national secretary, Shrikant Sharma won the election from Mathura with a margin of more than 1 lakh votes, defeating Congress Legislature Party leader and sitting MLA Pradeep Mathur. It is said that his proximity of Amit Shah earned him a cabinet berth, despite being a first timer to the assembly. Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary was a minister in the BSP government in 2007, and he won from Chatta constituency, Mathura.A political greenhorn in politics, Sandeep, has been apparently 'rewarded' for his grandfather's contribution to the party. Kalyan Singh, who is credited with expanding the party's support base among non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits and also spearheading the Ram Mandir campaign that saw BJP coming to power with 221 seats in 1991, is well respected in the party and a ministerial berth for his grandson was a foregone conclusion.Baghel, a former police officer, was introduced into politics after the Samajwadi Party fielded him in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, which he won from Jalesar. He went on to win the same seat twice more. The seat was later scrapped in delimitation exercise and SP later refused to field him from Firozabad, forcing him to join the BSP. He quit the BSP and joined the BJP in 2014.

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