Lucknow, July 11 -- Over a fortnight after their expulsion from the Samajwadi Party on June 23 on the charge of cross-voting during the 2024 Rajya Sabha elections and campaigning for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls later the same year, three rebel SP MLAs were declared unattached members of the U.P Legislative Assembly by the speaker on Thursday. The move sparked speculation in political circles on whether the rebels will get berths in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet or important posts in state government bodies. After becoming unattached members, the trio -- Manoj Pandey from Unchhahar (Rae Bareli) , Rakesh Pratap Singh from Gauriganj (Amethi) and Abhay Singh from Goshainganj (Ayodhya) -- are free to support the BJP on the floor of the House as well as on public platforms. An expansion of the Yogi 2.0 ministry has been pending for a long time and there are six vacancies. The council of ministers currently has 54 members against the permissible strength of 60. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on July 5 had informed that the three SP MLAs had been expelled from the party, principal secretary, Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Pradeep Dubey said. The MLAs have been declared unattached with effect from July 9, he added. Since the three MLAs were expelled from the party, they will not lose their membership of the house, Dubey said. The U.P. assembly speaker has declared the MLAs unattached and they will have all the rights as well as the privileges as other legislators, he added. In June 2021, two expelled BSP MLAs Lalji Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar were declared unattached members of the U.P. assembly, Dubey said. Showing the door to the rebels last month, Akhilesh Yadav had stated that now the expelled MLAs can become ministers in the BJP-led government. "I have addressed the technical issue that was proving to be a barrier in the induction of ministers in the Cabinet," he had said. Some of the rebel SP MLAs, including Manoj Pandey who enjoys influence over the upper caste Brahmin community in Rae Bareli and adjoining districts, and Rakesh Pratap Singh who has a hold on the upper caste Rajput community in Amethi district, were lobbying for berths in the Yogi Cabinet. The duo met top BJP leaders in the central and state governments. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, Manoj Pandey accompanied Union home minister Amit Shah to public meetings in Rae Bareli. At that time, Shah had given the message that Pandey would be an important player for the BJP in the Rae Bareli region, considered a Congress stronghold for decades. There is speculation in the political circles that the cabinet expansion will come after the appointment of a new state BJP president. One or two rebels might get a berth in the ministry as promised by the top BJP leaders. Despite repeated attempts, the MLAs were not available for comment. Announcing expulsion of the rebel MLAs on June 23, the SP on its X handle had said, "The Samajwadi Party in public interest expels the following MLAs from the party due to their communal divisive negativity and supporting anti-farmer, women, youth, business, working professionals and 'anti-PDA' ideology, as opposed to the politics of socialist harmonious positive ideology." Four other rebel MLAs who had also cross-voted in the 2024 Rajya Sabha polls were spared expulsion due to their 'good behaviour', the party said. The four who were spared are: Bisauli MLA Ashutosh Maurya, Kalpi MLA Vinod Chaturvedi, Chail MLA Puja Pal and Jalalpur MLA Rakesh Pandey....