The Yogi Adityanath cabinet was expanded for the first time since he took the mantle of the CM of Uttar Pradesh with 23 members taking oath at the Raj Bhavan.
Cabinet rank ministers who took their oaths of office and secrecy today included Mahendra Singh, Suresh Rana, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Anil Rajbhar, Ramnaresh Agnihotri and Kamla Rani.
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Ministers of state, with independent charge, inducted into the cabinet include Neelkanth Tiwari, Kapil Dev, Satish Dwivedi, Ashok Katiyar, Sriram Chauhan and Ravindra Jaiswal.
The ministers of state sworn in include Anil Sharma, Mahesh Gupta, Anandswarup Shukla, Vijay Kashyap, Giriraj Singh Dharmesh, Lakhan Singh Rajput, Neelima Katiyar, Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh, Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay, Ramashankar Patel and Ajit Singh Pal.
Earlier, the number of ministers, including the CM was 47. The CM has struck the caste balance by including 13 upper castes and 10 Dalits in his expanded ministry.
In the run-up to the expansion, Swatantra Dev Singh, Rajesh Agarwal, Dharmpal Singh, Archana Pandey and Anupama Jaiswal had given their resignations.
Swantra Dev Singh was the minister of transport and protocol and was appointed the President of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in July. Rajesh Agarwal, finance minister, tendered his resignation reasoning that he had hit 75 years and thus would uphold the party’s decision to not stay on as minister beyond that age. He was alleged to have been deeply involved in transfers and postings in his ministry. He was also in a pickle since Santosh Gangwar, (MoS, GoI with independent charge of Ministry of Labour and Employment) got only five votes from his locality.
Dharmpal Singh Saini was the minister of irrigation in the Yogi government. He has allegedly been unable to continue the land mafia which has possession of canals in the state. Anupama Jaiswal, minister for basic education was facing criticism for inordinate delay in distribution of sweaters and school uniforms last winter. Archana Pandey who had charge of fisheries was held to be a poor performer while her assistant was accused of taking a bribe.
The expansion is a clear nod to awarding high performers as four ministers of state with independent charge have been promoted to cabinet ministers while one minister of state now has an independent charge.
Anil Rajbhar’s inclusion is a nod to the continued importance of the community to the BJP’s plans for the 2022 state elections.
The surprise induction is the ministry’s female face Kamal Rani who has been found a cabinet berth.
The expansion has also given representation to hitherto unrepresented areas like Muzaffarnagar.
Surprise omissions include Ashish Patel, husband of Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal which is a key partner of the BJP. There was also speculation that Pankaj Singh, son of Rajnath Singh would find a place in the ministry.
