New Delhi: Yogi Adityanath on Friday took oath as Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister for the second term after the BJP won the politically crucial state in the recently-concluded Assembly elections. In the presence of BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president J.P. Nadda, Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, Mr Adityanath and 52 ministers took oath at Lucknow’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium. Some prominent names from the previous government, including Shrikant Sharma and Siddharth Nath Singh, were missing from the new team.
Eighteen cabinet ministers, 14 MoS (Independent charge) and 20 MoS were administered oath of office along with the CM by governor Annadiben Patel.
Keeping the UP’s caste politics in mind, Yogi Adityanath’s new team has 20 OBCs, nine Dalit, seven Brahmin, eight Thakur, two Vaishya, one kayashtha, one ST, one Sikh, one Muslim and two Bhoomihars.
Like the last BJP government, the CM will have two deputies — Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, who replaced Dinesh Sharma. While Mr Maurya had lost his Assembly seat, he is an MLC and a prominent OBC face. Mr Pathak is a Brahmin like his predecessor.
Though many new faces have been inducted in Yogi Adityanath’s new team, some of the prominent faces who did not get a second chance include Shrikant Sharma, Siddharth Nath Singh, Satish Mahana, Jai Pratap Singh and Ashutosh Tandon.
BJP allies Apna Dal (S)’s Ashish Patel and Nishad Party’s Sanjay Nishad are also included in Yogi Adityanath’s Cabinet. Mr Patel is the husband of Anupriya Patel, a member of PM Modi’s Council of Ministers.
Among those who have been repeated in the Cabinet include Suresh Khanna, Surya Pratap Shahi, Nand Gopal Gupta, Dharam Pal Singh, Anil Rajbhar, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, Jitin Prasada and Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary.
New faces in the team also include Swatantra Dev Singh, who is the BJP’s state chief. Former IAS officer Arvind Kumar Sharma, considered close to PM Modi, is also part of the Cabinet. He is an MLC and a vice president of the party. Former Uttarakhand governor and an OBC face, Baby Rani Maurya, is the only female in the Cabinet of ministers. In all, there are four women in the CM’s new team. Another prominent name in the new team is that of former IPS officer Asim Arun, a Jatav.
A new Muslim face Danish Azad Ansari replaced Mohsin Raza in the new team.
The BJP had broken a record in UP politics when after more than three decades, it retained power in the state with the largest number of Assembly seats. Yogi Adityanath, born as Ajay Singh Bisht in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal Panchur, is also the head of influential Gorakhnath Math.
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