BJP leader Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the 21st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, along with a 44-member Council of Ministers.
The Chief Minister will be assisted by two Deputy Chief Ministers, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, who were administered the oath of office along with the rest of the Council of Ministers by Governor Ram Naik.
Interestingly, neither the Chief Minister nor his two deputies are currently members of the State legislature. Mr. Sharma held the post of Mayor of Lucknow, while Mr. Adityanath and Mr. Maurya are Lok Sabha Members.
Apart from the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Ministers, the council of ministers comprises of 22 Cabinet Ministers, nine Ministers of State (Independent charge) and 13 Ministers of State. Though the BJP did not field a single Muslim in the elections, the list included Mohsin Raza, a Shia and former cricketer from Lucknow, who does not hold any political office.
Kalyan’s grandson in
In another surprise, Pankaj Singh, son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was not on the list, even as the grandson of another veteran leader and former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, Sandeep Singh, took the oath as a Minister of State. At 26, Sandeep is the youngest Minister in the Cabinet. Five women Ministers also took the oath.
The swearing-in ceremony at the Kanshiram Smriti Upwan here was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and a host of senior BJP leaders, including veterans L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and Union ministers. Outgoing chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was among those on stage with his father and Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh.
Mr. Modi later wished Mr. Adityanath’s team good luck. “I have immense confidence that this new team will leave no stone unturned in making U.P. ‘Uttam Pradesh.’ There will be record development,” he said on Twitter.
Soon after taking charge, Mr. Adityanath addressed the press and said his government would fulfil all poll promises. “Our government will work for all sections without any discrimination,” he said. While promising to improve the law and order, the Chief Minister also said he would create employment opportunities so that the youth would not have to migrate. “The youth has had to bear the bad rule of previous governments. We will ensure that recruitment for government jobs is corruption-free and done in a transparent manner,” he said.
The Chief Minister also expressed his commitment to ensuring the safety and dignity of women, while reiterating that farming will be the foundation of the State’s development under his party’s rule.
“The people of U.P. have given us a mandate for change. Positive results will be seen soon,” he said. dressed in his trademark saffron robes.
Caste balance
The party has kept caste calculations, regional balance and organisation in mind while forming the cabinet. While Adityanath is a Thakur, Mr. Maurya belongs to the Maurya Other Backward Class, while Mr. Sharma is a Brahmin.
A similar mix in caste distribution is evident in the selection of the rest of the ministers. Upper castes dominated the Cabinet berths, getting 15 out of the 22 posts. Of these five are Brahmins, four Kshatriyas, two Baniyas, one Bhumihar, two Punjabis and one Jat. Five OBCs — one each from the Maurya, Lodh, Kurmi, Chauhan and Rajbhar communities — and two Dalits have been included.
Of the nine MoS with independent charge, six are from upper castes — three Kshatriyas and one each from Brahmin, Jat and Baniya castes — while the other three are from backward classes — one each from the Kurmi, Saini and Rajbhar communities. In the Minister of State category, there are three Dalits, four upper castes — two Brahmins and one each from Kshatriya and Baniya castes — and four from backward classes — one each from Lodh, Nishad, Kurmi and Yadav communities. A Muslim, Mohsin Raza, and a Sikh, Baldev Aulakh, MLA from Bilaspur, also find their names on the list. In total, the first council of ministers included 27 upper castes, 13 from backward classes and five Dalits.
The council of ministers has a mix of experience and youth, with also a fair share of leaders who moved to the BJP just before the elections or in the recent past. Among the Cabinet ministers are former BJP U.P. president and minister Surya Pratap Shahi; eight-time MLA from Shahjahanpur, Suresh Khanna; former minister and veteran from Kanpur, Satish Mahana; Lodh leader and three-time MLA from Aonla, Dharampal Singh; S.P.S Baghel, former BJP backward morcha head; former member of the Indian cricket team, Chetan Chauhan; BJP national spokespersons and Srikanth Sharma and Siddharth Nath Singh, who won from Mathura and Allahabad West respectively and Ashutosh Tandon, Lucknow East MLA, and son of former MP Lalji Tandon.
Rebels welcomed
Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of the SBSP, BJP's ally also took oath as cabinet minister. Congress rebels Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Brijesh Pathak, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary and Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi” will be his colleagues.
Among the MoS (independent charge) list were: BJP State vice-president and an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, Suresh Rana; BJP State general secretary and key organizational man Swatantra Dev Singh; Saharanpur strongman Dharam Singh Saini who defeated Imran Masood; BJP state general secretary Anupama Jaiswal and Swati Singh, MLA from Sarojini Nagar in Lucknow. Ms. Singh is the wife of BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh, who used derogatory language against Mayawati last year.
There were also two nominees from Varanasi, which falls under Mr. Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency. While Anil Rajbhar, MLA from Shivpur, is a MoS (Independent), Neelkanth Tiwari, an advocate who secured the high-stakes Varanasi South seat, is a Minister of State.
Among the Ministers of State the prominent names included Archana Pandey, who secured the Chhibramau seat in Kannauj, the Lok Sabha constituency of Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav; Girish Yadav, MLA from Jaunpur and lone Yadav Minister; Sandeep Singh, grandson of Kalyan Singh and Suresh Kumar, a Pasi who won from Jagdishpur in Amethi, Lok Sabha constituency of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
A Minister of State berth also went to the BJP’s second ally, the Apna Dal’s Jai Kumar Singh, who won from Jahanabad Fatehpur. Though the BJP swept the Bundelkhand region, winning all 19 seats in the drought-prone region, only one Minister belongs to the reagion — Manohar Lal Kori, who secured the Mehroni reserved seat in Jhansi.
A power-packed Cabinet
A 44-member Council of Ministers was sworn in along with Yogi Adityanath as CM and two Deputy Chief Ministers in Lucknow
Key Ministers
Surya Pratap Shahi
- Former U.P. BJP president
- Former Minister in KJalyan Singh's Cabinet
- Three-time MLA
Rita Bahuguna Joshi
- A heavyweight in U.P. politics
- Former U.P. Congress president
- MLA from Lucknow Cantonment
S.P.Singh Baghel
- Was a three-time MP from Samajwadi Party
- BJP's backward morcha president
- A Dalit MLA from Tundla in Firozabad
Siddharth Nath Singh
- MLA from Allahabad West
- National secretary of BJP
- Is the grandson of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri
Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi
- MLA from Allahabad
- Was a former Minister in the BSP government
- Former Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Allahabad
